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IN MEMORIAM 


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BLIZA PLATT STODDARD 


DAUGHTER OF PROF. JOHN F. AND ELIZA A. STODDARD, 


SENT TO THE HOME OF EARTH JULY 21st, 1869; CALLED 


TO THE HOME IN HEAVEN MAY 197u, 1886. 





“The Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away, blessed 
be the name of the Lord.” 





Nee AR KON, discs 


Srarnuck & DUNHAM, PRINTERS, 165 MARKET STREET. 


188 6. 








SPRING HILL, KEARNY, N, J. 


LINN E'l2geee IR PEPLACE, 


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The Loung Ahirls’ Allizsion, Banu, 


JN THE HOPE THAT, AS THE MEMORY OF ONE WHO LOVED 
THEM SHALL INSPIRE TO NEW SERVICE FOR CHRIST, 
SHE MAY LIVE IN THEIR LIVES, AND WORK 
THROUGH THEIR EFFORTS, THAT WHEN 
THEY MEET IN JIEAVEN THE 
POWER AND RREAPER MAY 


REJOICE TOGETHER. 
With THE Love of ‘ Linnet’s”’ ‘MoTHER. 


Succasunna, N. J., JuLY 21, 1886. 


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IN MEMORIAM. 





One Summer morn, from realms of love, 
A little pilgrim came; 

Our Father sent her from above, 
To share our home, and name. 


To walk beside us day by day, 
And rest with us at night; 
Of every thorny, shadowed way, 

The comfort and delight. 


Her little hand was laid in ours, 
To strengthen, guide, and cheer 

In many weary, lonely hours, 
When no one else was near. 


Her voice awoke the echoing tone 
Of joy, in every place, 

A brightness in her presence shone, 
A gladness in her face, 





IN MEMORIAM. 


That made it seem a pleasant thing 
To journey here below ; 

To open up some living spring 
For others as we go. 


The growing thought, and tenderness, 
The love—intense and true; 

Each year, more full of preciousness, 
Of promise, ever new, 


For almost seventeen years was given. 
And then a Voice was heard,— 

A message to our child from heaven. 
As, at the sudden word, 


The pace was quickened, and she passed 
Away from mortal sight; 

’ A shadow on the earth was cast, 

That changed our day to night. 


But as she reached the entrance gate, 
And heard the welcome home 

Of her dear Lord, and those who wait 
For each of us to come, 


The pearls of heaven were opened wide, 
And light shone on our way, 

Amid the deepest gloom to guide, 
Until the dawn of day. 


This darkened earth can be made bright 
From Heaven’s unfolding portal ; 

And we can walk in the same light 
As those in life immortal. 


ee oe ee 


IN MEMORIAM. 


One ray, to mark our steps toward home, 
From its own doorway gleaming, 

For those who have already come 
The noonday glory’s beaming. 


Our Linnet is among that band, 
Beloved, protected, guided ; 
Expecting us in that blest land, 
With those to us confided. 


A new step on the street of gold, 
A new voice in the Psalm; 

A new name on the book enrolled, 
A newly gathered Palm. 


It is our Linnet’s hand that brings 
This offering of Palm; 

It is our Linnet’s voice that sings 
In that celestial Psalm. 


Our Linnet walking with her Lord 
Upon the pavement golden; 

And listening to His blessed word, 
From His own lips outspoken. 


The robe of white, the harp, the crown, 
The mansion, He is giving; 

To be eternally her own; 
How truly SHE IS LIVING. 


And we are going to the child; 
Each camping ground is nearer ; 
The journey through the rugged wild 
Makes rest and welcome dearer. 





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IN MEMORIAM. 


Before the throne the sainted wait; 
Within the temple stand; 

No service is too small, or great, 
If it is God’s command. 


And can we share the blest employ 
Of those with God above ? 

To minister,—their highest joy, 
And ours to serve,—in love. 


There is a work for us,—in time, 
So noble, and so true; 

It lifts us to the heights sublime, 
To touch the work they do. 


In consecrated service one, 
In spirit parted—never ; 

And when ¢o us is said “ well done,” 
One in His presence—ever. 


One thought—to do the Master’s will 


Inspires each fond endeavor ; 
His gracious purpose to fulfil, 
In this world, or the other. 


This golden link unites the seen 
And the unseen together; 

Until we lift the veil between 
And share one home forever. 


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at Seven years. 





OBITUARY. 











On the 2ist of July, 1869, the Heavenly Father 
sent an angel to the household at Spring Hill. We 
named her HrizA PuATT, for her sainted grand- 
mother; but, when she was a month old, she smiled 
as her cousin called her a little bird, a little Linnet, 
and thus she received her pet name. A year of 
health was followed by three months of illness ; 
medical skill watched but could not stay the march 
of disease, when the Great Physician sent a dear 
friend with beef-tea and wise counsel, and the child 
was given back to brighten another year. Then, in 
mid-winter, she wilted like a flower touched with the 
frost. Our hope was alone in God; a request was 
sent to the ladies’ prayer meeting that, if the train- 
ing of earth could be used for God’s glory, she might 
be entrusted to us. Her pastor prayed, since Jesus 
loved and loves little children, He would listen and 
help. Prayer was answered. The child’s life was 
spared ; the one light in her father’s sick-room, the 


one comfort of its weary hours. 
2 


10 OBITUARY. 


One day as the two year old darling was looking 


over some pictures in a Sunday School paper she saw 
a little girl at the piano, and said ‘*‘ Vo mamma!” 
She thought the little girl would be lonely not to 
have mamma to say ‘‘sweet child,’’ so she could 
say ‘‘sweet mamma.” Then.coming to her mamma, 
with both hands around her neck, she said ‘‘I love 
you, mamma.’’ At set times the dolls must have 
their supper, each being fed with a spoon; the one 
lacking a head receiving her portion in her hand. 
One day, coming to mamma’s room, she could not 
lift the latch, so she called ‘‘dear mamma, please 
open the door,’ teaching a lesson in that childish, 
trusting plea that can never be forgotten. In 
November, 1871, she learned the little verse *‘ Suffer 
little children to come unto me,’’ and became 
accustomed to sit still at prayer. One day crackers 
had been added to the oyster soup, and papa could 
not take any. Linnet noticed that for this reason 
Margaret was in disfavor, and true to her desire to 
make every one at ease, she tasted hers and said, 
‘“Marne’s soup, good soup;’’ then looking from 
one to the other for a response went on praising 
the soup until each unpleasant thought was for- 


gotten. Hearing mamma say to Margaret one even-. 


ing, I do not wish any tea; ‘‘Mamma feel bad, 
no want tea, better come and take a little.’ One 
morning, while breakfasting in the kitchen, her chair 
was placed opposite the cross-bar of the long table, 
suddenly she said to Margaret ‘‘One of Linnett’s 
feet in other room;’’ one foot had wandered past 
the cross-piece under the table. At grandpa’s she 


OBITUARY. ye 


used to walk around the dining room table and say, 
** Please, grandpa, come home,”’ until she heard his 
cane on the walk, then run to greet him with smiles 
that brightened his face, however weary with care. 
One day, in New York, candy was bought and given 
in her hand, but she did not offer to untie the 
string, saying ‘‘Candy, grandpa, supper, plate, ask 
Linnett have some.’’ These little incidents of these 
very early years are noted for the faithful helpers 
in that home. 

One morning, of her third year, she covered up 
' mamma’s nose with a blanket, and said ‘‘ Blackbird 
nip off your nose—better keep covered.”’ At dinner, 
papa was helping her to a small piece of custard 
pie, when his hand turned and the pie with it, 
Linnet looked up with an arch smile and said, 
‘‘Simple Simon—papa not put pie on plate right.” 
December 22nd, she commenced to sew, wanting to 
help on the Christmas gifts which her little hands 
were to distribute. When recovering from her severe 
illness she said one morning to Lizzie, ‘‘Good morn- 
ing; do you feel pretty well? Linnet has been very 
sick. Is Pay. better?’’? then, when dressed, took her 
little duster from the rack, dusted her chair, and sat 
down. Afternoon she warmed papa’s boots and took 
them to him, although she was very weak; soon 
after, said ‘‘See me hop!” It was a poor attempt at 
her former exercise, but it was a great deal to those 
who had watched during three weeks of suspense. 
Then we all knelt down to thank God for His mercy ; 
leaning her head on her little chair she was quiet as 
if following every word; and when able to go down 


12 OBITUARY. 


stairs once more, as she bowed ‘with mamma, she put 
her doll in a kneeling posture before her chair and 
said, ‘‘She is praying for Linnet.’’ When mamma 
went to the city she commissioned her thus: ‘‘ Bring 


my baby a grandpapa;’’ mamma did the best she 
could. Papa said, I think that doll belongs to the 
royal family; ‘‘No,’’ she replied, ‘‘it belongs to 


me.’ She had been asking for a picture; mamma 
said, Wait. She went to papa and said, ‘‘ Linnet’s so 
patient.’’ One day mamma said, What makes you so 
sweet? The answer of word and tone, was ‘‘ Love.”’ 
It was now time to learn to make mud pies; she 
said ‘‘I am making rice pudding out of dirt.” In 
June, mamma was very sick; Linnet said ‘‘I will 
mind you, poor, sick mamma, I am afraid I will 
have to take you to heaven, if vou die.’’ One day 
it rained heavily; one little finger pointed to the 
clouds, while both eyes peered into the gloom, as if 
to learn the secret, and she said ‘There is a hole up 
there, and so it comes down.’’ Speaking of the gar- 
den, mamma said, God made the grass and the trees ; 
‘and Payton made the little trees’’ Linnet quickly 
added, having seen him plant them. The lesson of 
the evening was, that Payton planted and nourished 
what God had made. One day she broke a goblet, 
while in the act of throwing the water out of it; she 
came in and said ‘‘I was so worried, I broke the 
glass.”’ Speaking of her babyhood, she said ‘‘I was 
just commencing to talk, and I was bashful.”’ 

Her observation and discrimination were a great com- 
fort to her mathematical papa. Hearing mamma say 
that the water ran slowly, she filled her, little pitcher 





OBITUARY. 13 


and put it on the marble stand for an emergency. 


Before she was quite three years old her papa allowed 
her to hold the lines when the road was smooth, and 
she would say ‘*When I see folks coming I will let you 
drive.’’ One day while driving she said, ‘‘If Fannie 
was a little girl, and I was Fannie, she would harness 
me and drive me to Newark.’’ One day we saw her in 
her stocking feet, with her shoes in her hand, going 
toward the door where stood a little barefooted girl of 
about her own age, she said ‘‘I can wear my old 
shoes, the little girl has to walk all the time; she can 
have the new ones.’”? When about three years old 
she was showing her pictures to Christopher, as he 
was washing the parlor windows; he said, That’s 
wou NO,” she replied, “tits my picture; this is 
me,’’ pointing to her breast. She said to her papa, 
**Where was I before I came to you, three years 
ago?’ and at another time she asked ‘‘Is grandpa’s 
God the same as our God?’’ At dinner, she had 
bread and jelly; she said ‘‘I don’t Know how to 


” and, after 


make jelly, but I know how to eat it; 
some moments of quiet, said ‘‘ When I am married 
I will have a jar of jelly to myself.’? About this 
time she made her first visit to the Sunday School, 
and seemed much interested in hearing mamma tell 
of the infant Jesus, she said ‘‘ Wish Linnet could 
see Him.’’ One evening at the table she broke a 
saucer ; papa’s face was rather stern but she looked 
up with a sweet smile and said, ‘‘The dish ran away 
with the spoon.’’ When papa told her not to do 
certain things, she said ‘‘ You know, papa, children 
will do such things sometimes.’’ Often she would 








14 OBITUARY. 


say ‘I want to be good—say sweet child;” and 
again, ‘‘ Ask God to bless Linnet ; ask God to make 
me good.”’ 

Frolicsome, and winsome, she was the little help in 
every department of the honie. With tiny sponge and 
soap, or pan and brush, in house-cleaning time; with 
pencil and paper, when letters were being written ; 
taking things from the table, one by one, after meals ; 
coming with pads of warm flannel, when any one was 
sick. On Sabbath she was fond of teaching Christo- 
pher out of her papa’s large illustrated Bible. If 
mamma was at church she would watch for her re- 
turn, run down the walk, clapping her hands and 
laughing all over her face, to bring her into the house 
to some pleasant surprise there. If anything troubled 
mamma, she would say ‘‘ You are a precious mam- 


Tete 


and if away from her, would be ‘‘ homesick, 
distressed to see mamma.’’ If mamma was ill the 
child’would ask, ‘‘ What are you suffering from ’” 
and attempt some relief; if she was sick herself, she 


9 


would say ‘‘ Dear mamma,’’ in pitying tones, think- 
ing of mamma’s pain more than of her own. One 
day mamma was pacing the floor, grieving for her 
mother; Linnet sat up in bed watching her oppor- 
tunity, and as mamma came near said, ‘‘ Will you 
lie down with me?” then putting her arms around 
mamma’s neck, and drawing her close, she said ‘I 
love you, dear, sweet mamma.’’ Thus was the child 
a comforter from her earliest years. 

The first time she looked upon death she said of 
the neighbor, ‘‘ He is asleep.’”’ Her nurse had lost 
both parents; in talking with her, Linnet would say 


OBITUARY. 11,9 


‘‘The Lord Knew it was best that your father should 
go to heaven.”’ And when, August 8rd, 1873, her 
father was called away, her tender thoughtfulness was 
beyond her years. On returning from a little visit to 
grandfather, she said to mamma ‘‘I hear from Aunt 
Mary that papa is dead ; 


” we replied ‘‘ He has gone 


to heaven ;’’ 


tears trembled in her eyes, but she took 
a seat between grandpa and mamma, and was as 
quiet as if every word of the service was understood ; 
afterwards she brushed flies from the little veil that 
covered his face; she thought he looked very sweet 
‘lying among the flowers, but she was very sorry he 
was dead; she then interested the family by her 
quaint sayings; her very presence bringing sunshine 
into the deep shadows. When we returned from 
Greenwood and turned from the earthly resting place 
to the heavenly, as we gathered in our lonely home 
around the open Bible to catch a glimpse of the better 
home, the child seemed to obtain a view of heaven 
which she never lost. Thus day by day she helped 
in her own sweet way, kneeling down when mamma 
knelt, kissing away the tears, saying bright, pleasant 
things, and answering every question with, ‘‘ Papa 
is in heaven.’’ 

Thus the child’s life became one with the mother’s. 
Four years passed away in this quiet companionship. 
From a record we copy a few incidents; one tells of 
a custard made by her little hands, and carried with 
frait and flowers to a poor sick man; another, a 
dinner cooked in her own little stove and distributed 
to the family. All sorts of fun mingled in the home- 
life—riding on the large dog, as held by the nurse ; 





16 OBITUARY. 


frolics-with the pussy, who sometimes, when she was 
alone was allowed to sit in her high chair and lap a 
saucer of milk from the table; at such times pussy 
had to be quiet while Linnet asked a blessing. At 
one time, some one pretended to whip her nurse; 
she hurried to them saying, ‘‘I would rather be 
whipped than have Fannie whipped.’’ After think- 
ing quietly, one day, she said *‘When any one is 
dead you can lay your hand on them but they do 
not feel it; if any one is alive they can feel the least 
touch,’ laying her hand on mamma’s, in illustration. 
Seeing a pair of pink shoes that she admired, she 
first thought she would like them, but memories 
came back, and she quickly said ‘‘ Little girls who 
have lost their papas do not wear pink shoes.’ One 
day, speaking of her little limbs, she said ‘‘ Papa 
used to talk about them; how would it do to have 
one sut off, then papa conld have it.’? She was un- 
willing to take a spoon that he had not allowed her 
to use, and in many ways deferred to his wishes. 
One day, when mamma was not strong, Linnet: was 
a little naughty, but hearing her say, ‘‘It is hard to 
be sick and have a disobedient child;’? she came 
quickly and said ‘‘I will go, and do as you say; 
you shall not have a disobedient child any more.”’ 
She was always very interesting in her penitence. 
One day, when she had cut her finger with a bottle, 
she said to mamma, ‘‘ Do you think you would bear 
this trial patiently if you were a little girl.” 
She wanted a piece of sugar to sweeten her mouth, 
At one time she said ‘‘Mamma, I wish that I was 
stuck to you with mucilage, then you would not go 





OBITUARY. ye 


anywhere without me, but”? she added, ‘‘ you could 
not go out rainy days, and I could not go out to 
play when you are tired, then I could not sit down 
unless I was only half stuck ;”? thus she studied to 
herself the inconveniences that would attend the 
gratification of her wish. 

One day, when she was five years old, she said 
‘‘Do I ever speak to you when you are praying ?”’ 
mamma said No; ‘‘ Then you will not speak to me; 
I was praying God to make me never tell anything 
that isn’t so, or disobey my mamma.’’ One evening 
when mamma was going to church she said, ‘If I 
had a papa I would not sav anything, but as I have 
only you, and you have only me, I cannot bear to 
have you leave me at all.”’ One day she was down 
stairs and she called up the register, ‘‘Mamma! Jesus 
Christ came into the world to save sinners.’’ This’ 
was her verse, and it sounded very sweetly thus re- 
peated. One evening, at prayers, Linnet was anxious 
to understand how God, being a spirit, conld see and 
feel and know all things, and she said ‘‘I wish He 
would just put His head out of heaven so that I 
could see Him: if he would only come down upon 
earth as Jesus Christ did once, and let us take hold 
of His hand and Jook into His face!’’ She was 
anxious to know how Christ could die for ws so many 
years ago, and when told that he died for all who 
believe and love, in all ages, she asked ‘‘ And for no 
one else?’’ We tried to explain that only those who 
accept can receive the blessing provided for all. One 
rainy day, when we were regretting that we could not 


send some milk to a sick friend, Linnet dressed her- 
3) 


18 OBITUARY. 


self in her bonnet, cloak, veil, cloud, and mittens, 
and umbrella in hand, came to do the errand which 
would have given her a long mile in the mud. One 
day, in Newark, mamma gave her some spending 
money ; she started to buy peanuts, but seeing a poor 
child, she came back and said, ‘* { will give the money 
to the poor children, and what I have at home; and I 
wish I. had saved the money I spent before;’’ this 
was all, without any suggestion from any one. One 
day mamma said, half aloud, Well, life is but a sum- 
mer’s dream; Linnet quietly said ‘‘ That isn’t right— 
Life is but an empty dream ;”’ 
she had heard some one read Longfellow’s poem. 
December 5th, 1874, some one said to Linnet, I 
wish it was not Sunday; she replied, ‘‘I would wish 


on inquiry, we found 


it was Sunday every day, if it would please Jesus 
‘better.’’ On receiving a doll for Christmas, she 
said ‘‘I think a great deal of my doll, but not so 
much as if my papa had seen it.’’ When mamma 
found her lost breastpin, she said ‘‘I should have 
felt as sorry to have you lose it as to lose my new 
doll.”’ On New Year’s day, 1875, mamma, in talk- 


ing to her, as she was preparing her for the night, 


said, You Know you are mamma’s comfort now, 
and her great wish is to have you a good girl and 
love Jesus; ‘‘That is the very one I do love,’’ she 
replied quickly. How long have you loved Him? 
‘<Eiver since I lived.’’ Lived where? ‘‘ Anywhere.”’ 
Why do you love Him? ‘‘ Because He is my Saviour.”’ 
Any other reason? ‘‘ Because He helps me to be 
good.’’ Any other? ‘‘ Because He ts my Saviour.”’ 
One evening she placed her hand on mamma’s fore- 





a 


OBITUARY. 19 


head and said gently, ‘‘ Excuse me, but what was the 
word the man used to-day ?’’ we discovered that con- 
verted was the word, and she said, ‘‘I want to use it 
in prayer.’’ What are you praving for? ‘To help 
the man.’* How? ‘To help them, that they may do 
good.’ An evangelist was assisting her pastor, Dr. 
Fish, in the meetings, and she thus expressed her 
interest in their work. This was the fun-loving, 
merry-hearted, active child in her sober moments. 
The Scripture cards that had Jesus on them were her 
choice always; and her chosen Bible reading, Christ 
on the Cross. 

One morning, we were talking of grandmother. 
Mamma said, You did not see her on earth, but I 
hope you will meet her in heaven. The child startled 
by the guick reply, ‘“‘I do not expect to go to 
heaven.”?’ Why not? ‘‘I am not good enough.’’? Then 
we will ask God to make you good. After a little 
Season of prayer, the day’s duties claimed time and 
thought. In theafternoon, mamma said, How do you 
feel now, about going to heaven? ‘‘ Different from — 
what I did in the morning.”” What has made vou 
feel so? ‘Prayer I suppose.’ Then, as she was comb- 
ing mamma’s hair, she laid aside a strand that she had 
carefully brushed, and said ‘‘This is the way that 
Jesus smooths our hearts; he takes out all that is 
wrong; God will take all the sins from our hearts as 
I take the snarls from the hair,’ are her own, sweet 
words. When mamma said, You use acomb tosmooth 
the hair, what does God use to smooth the heart? She 
replied, very thoughtfully, ‘*I suppose His Hand 
and His Word.’’ Another day she asked ‘“Why 


20) OBITUARY. 


Jesus cried out, on the Cross, when He was willing 
to die??? mamma tried to explain, that if she gladly 
took suffering for her child she might still groan 
with the pain; then she wanted to Know if people 
lived while Christ was dying, and if so, how He 
kept them alive when He died.’’ Mamma said, God 
kept them. ‘‘ Yes, but there is only one God, Jesus 
is God.’”’> Mamma tried to tell her that it was the 
man nature that died, not the God nature. ‘‘Of 
course,’ she said, *>no one could see the spirit, only 
the Lord.”’ 

AS we visited a poor family she became much inter- 
ested, and on the return home selected a number of 
her things to give each of the children, then asked 
to have lace stockings cut out, and with patient fingers 
worked the edges of them with bright wools, and fill- 
ing them with candy, put them in the basket with a 
few toys; one of the little boys was sick and he had 
been praying for warm flannels, so, when they came, 


he said the little girl came to answer his prayer and 
saved his life. 


The Summer of 1879 was spent with Grandfather 
Stoddard, at Mountaindale, New York. On the 28th 
of November, at her Grandfather Platt’s, in New York 
City, Linnet took her new papa’s hand as he gave the 
other to mamma, and the three became one; the love 
and confidence of the child of eight years increased 
with the eight years of her stay with him at the 
parsonage. On the 29th of December we came to 
Succasunna; Linnet was just recovering from pneu- 
monia, and spent the Winter months at home with 
her books and toys, and young friends ; in the Spring 





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EMANCIPATION GROUP. 


POEM. 


BY JOHN G. WHITTIER. 


Amidst thy sacred effigies + 
Of old renown give place, 

O city, Freedom-loved! to his — 
Whose hand unchained a race. 


Take the worn frame, that rested not 
Save in a martyr’s grave — 

The care-lined face, that none forgot, 
Bent to the kneeling slave. 


Let man be free! The mighty word 
He spake was not his own; 

An impulse from the Highest stirred 
These chiselled lips of stone. 


The cloudy sign, the fiery guide, 
Along his pathway ran, 


And Nature, through his voice, denied 


The ownership of man. 


We rest in peace where these sad eyes 
Saw peril, strife, and pain ; 

His was the nation’s sacrifice, 
And ours the priceless gain. 


O symbol of God’s will on earth 
As it is done above! 

Bear witness to the cost and worth 
Of justice and of love. 


Stand in thy place and testify 
To coming ages long, 

That truth is stronger than a lie, 
And righteousness than wrong. 


ite EDTA TTONARXERCISES. 25 


This was written for the occasion by Mr. Whittier, and 
was read by Master Andrew Chamberlain, a graduate of the 
Boston Latin School. | 

Alderman Charles H. B. Breck, chairman of the commit- 
tee, then presented the completed work to the Mayor. 


ALDERMAN BRECK’S ADDRESS. 


Mr. Mayor: — We are here to-day to dedicate a 
group of statuary donated to the City of Boston by 
our distinguished and esteemed fellow-citizen, the 
Hon. Moses Kimball, whose liberal generosity is 
most warmly appreciated, and will be remembered by 
not only this, but by each succeeding generation of 
Bostonians. 

Much well-deserved credit is due to Mr. Kimball 
for the nice discriminating taste and excellent judg- 
ment that prompted him in the selection of a gift so 
beautiful, so appropriate, and so suggestive of histor- 
ical reminiscences, as this group of emblematical fig- 
ures, representing the most interesting, the most im- 
portant, and the most sublime event that has ever 
transpired in the history of the world, resulting in the 
freedom of more than three millions of the colored 
race, who had been held in the cruel bondage of 
slavery since the early settlement of our country. 

This group will be a lasting memorial of the issu- 


ing of that proclamation by Abraham Lincoln which 


a) OBITUARY. 


broke her right leg, between the ankle and the knee ; 
the pain when Dr. Wiggins set it an hour afterwards 
was borne like a heroine; in a few days she was in a 
wheel chair, active and happy, and in a week or two 
would hop out on one foot, and with a croquet mal- 
let help herself around the room. One day, when 
allowed down stairs, she picked some flowers, gathered 
them in her apron, (holding it in her mouth,) and 
hopped over to a grave to fill a glass that she was. 
accustomed to supply with fresh flowers; she did not 
know the lady whose name was cut in the marble 
but the empty glass always invited her to bring flow- 
ers, and this grave is now very near her own garden 
bed. 

From September Ist, 1880, to March 1st, 1881, Lin- 
net attended Miss Ward’s school, afterwards spent a 
few weeks at Miss Wiggin’s. That Spring a touch 
of malaria made her frail, and we watched her closely 
all Summer. <A year of home study followed, and in 
January, 1882, she commenced school at Miss Magie’s, 
in Dover; the nine train in the morning, and the four 
in the afternoon, connected home and school life for | 
three years and three months. The last day being 


April 30th, 1886. In her school bag she brought 


home one book— The New Practical Arithmetic—that 
her father had dated on his wedding day. Thus she 
studied from the problems he had written, among the 
lessons of her last day, nineteen days before she 


entered 
“The School where Christ himself doth rule.” 


August 16, 1884, the good ship Anchoria started 
from New York for Glasgow with our little house- 


OBITUARY. 23 


hold as a part of her passengers. The voyage was one 
of concentrated pleasure in its social life, and its 
wonderful manifestations of the power and goodness 
of God. The trip through Scotland and England, and 
a little tour of the Continent, opened new instruction ' 
and enjoyment day by day, and when, October 25, we 
were welcomed home, we felt that goodness and 
mercy had followed. 

In Paris, we selected slides to illustrate our journey, 
so that the friends who remained at home might share 
in the things we looked upon with so much interest. 
Two years previously the young people had been 
gathered he parsonage for mutual entertainment 
and inétruction, under the name of the Youne 
PEOPLE'S SocraL. Linnet subscribed for sixty copies 
of Children’s Work for Children; these were placed 
in as many families, and the questions on the last 

| page formed the basis of study for these monthly 

| gatherings. We tried to have something, or some- 
body, to represent the country and people of our 
study, and thus the need and use of a Stereopticon 
was developed ; we commenced in the house with an 
oil lantern, but not having room we adjourned to the 
church, in a few months. Linnet had charge from 
the first; the patient hours of work, adjusting those 
pictures in that lantern, we cannot number, but month 
by month at home, and occasionally in other places 
where papa gave an illustrated lecture, she had the 
heavy end,——-doing the work faithfully, even to May 
Sth, when, in our own parlor, she handled the slides, 
for the last time, for the entertainment of a sick 

- uncle. 


| 





24 OBITUARY. 


In 1882, a number from the Sunday School formed 
a YouNG Giris’ Misston Banp. As secretary,’ Lin 
net, drew up the following resolutions : 


“The Young Girls’ Mission Band was organized March Ist, 1882, 
and has adopted this Constitution. 


The meetings will be held on the first Saturday of every month, 
at the home of one of the members, (Summer and Winter,) at two 
or three o’clock—according to the amount of work to be done. 
The first half-hour to be given to devotional exercise, as follows: 


1, Singing of a Hymn out of Gospel Songs. 
2. Uniting in the “ Lord’s Prayer.” 
3. Singing of a Hymn. 
4. Uniting in the 23rd Psalm. 
5. Reading of some Missionary article. 
6. Singing of a Hymn. 3 
This is to consume at least a half-hour. Then if there is work 
to be done, work until time for an early tea; after that the meet- 
ing is finished. During any part of the meeting gossiping will not 
be allowed. 
[Signed. | KE. P. STODDARD, Szc. 


This the unaided work of a child of twelve years. 


Efficient work was done in helping to fill a box for 
the Persian school. These young people earned or 
saved their money. Linnet. among others, had a 
garden of early vegetables, which she planted and 
tended for a home market. The little society kept 
accounts with minute exactness; paid for everything 
they used and surprised us all by the neatness and 
variety of their handiwork. In a year, or so, the 
older members dropped out of the meetings ; and for 
three years Linnet carried the little band, devoting 
the first Saturday of each month, never allowing any 
engagement to interfere. Early in May she prepared 
a new book, marking the months for the coming year ; 





OBITUARY. 95 


the names of members, with the amounts due from 
each and the items connected with the working plan of 
the society ; the accounts all balanced seem to have 
been prepared for this passing of the trust into other 
hands. We hope the inspiration of her love for this 
work will live in it, and accomplish through it much 
service for her dear Lord. Thus she had been in- 
terested in some departments of Christian work for 
these years. 

With her own money she subscribed for papers to 
send to little friends. <A tiny safe held new coins and 
some proportion of her spending money, so she always 
had mission ffunds. These little things were done 
without a suggestion from anyone and without our 


knowledge, excepting as the facts crept out incident- 


ally. Light and frolicsome there was this undertone 
of noble purpose; the controlling motive seemed to 
be to live to make some one happy. If she thought 
any little friend was not receiving a due share of at- 
tention in company she would seek her out; if any- 
one censured her companions she would take the 
blame herself. Mamma never could say this com- 
panion has led you to do something to displease me, 
but she would answer promptly, ‘‘I went myself; 
don’t find fault with anyone else.’’ Always frank 
and honest; true to her friends whatever their condi- 
tion ; it is a comfort to hear them say ‘‘ Linnet never 
slighted me.’”’ Impulsive and ardent, quick to speak 
and act, she had an intense nature to control, a strong 
will to govern and guide, but she hada heart full of 
warm sympathies, a fine sense of honor, an intuitive 


perception of right and wrong, a deep and high ap- 
2 








26 OBITUARY. 


preciation of nobility in others, and a constancy of 
devotion to a chosen aim that surmounted all difficul- 
ties in the way of its accomplishment. 

From a child she loved the Sunday School, and * 
was never her choice to stay from home on the Sab- 
bath. The death of her loved teacher, Mrs. Convin, 
May 18th, 1882, affected her very much. Of her own 
accord she sent to Morristown for a floral tribute, and 
gathering the class together sat with them among the 
mourners. The gifts of this teacher were more and 
more treasured as the child grew to understand her 
worth. 

Years passed ; the social life of the parish was en- 
tered into with the enthusiasms of her nature: its 
study in the elocution class, its recreations, its varied 
interests became her own. Meanwhile the religious 
life was deepening. 

In February she attended special meetings at Flan- 
ders; there was a request that those who purposed to 
serve God should arise; she arose and from that hour 
seemed to grow rapidly in Christian experience ; she 
wrote letters to her friends, laid out plans for work, 
and entered with all the ardor of her temperament 
into the service of Christ. One day she said to an in- 
valid friend ‘‘I want to bring all the Mission Band 
into the fold of Christ, I want you to pray for them 
and help me plan for their good.’’ She also asked 
prayer for a young college friend to whom she had 
written, urging him to live for Christ ; he had replied 
that it was too serious a subject for him now, he 
would lay it aside for a while, but she said ‘‘I am not 
going to give him up, I am going to keep right on un- 





OBITUARY. 2 ae 


til he answers me, I can’t let him go.’’? In a letter to 
the same friend she urged her again to suggest some 
real Christian work—particularly with regard to the 
Mission Band and the young people of the commu- 
nity, adding ‘‘I have been praying that some way 
might be shown me to do good, and now may be you 
can suggest it.’’ This friend said, I never saw any- 
body so in earnest. ‘‘ You see you can help me a 
great deal. J will pray for your father and mother, 
also for you, and hope you will pray for me.”’ 

On Sabbath, April 18, learning there had been bap- 
tisms at Drakesville, she said ‘‘If the water is warm 
enough I can be baptized this week.’? Wednesday 
was her choice ; it wasa perfect day ; friends gathered 
around the banks of the little stream as papa led the 
dear child into the water and consecrated her to the 
Lord in that emblematic grave; every arrangement 
was made for her comfort and she seemed perfectly 
well. The following Friday, instead of returning 
home from school, she went to gather Arbutus in the 
Scrub Oaks for the Easter service, returning by the 
7 o clock to McCaineville; the day was warm, the 
evening ‘cool; she became overheated in the sun, 
drank freely of spring water, and rode in the cool air, 
and at night was cold and needed more clothing. 
The next day rode to Dover on horseback in the 
morning, and to meet her mother at Drakesville, at 
5.40 Pp. M. train. 

On Sabbath, April 25th, the interesting service. 
commemorating Christ’s resurrection in the morning ; 
in the afternoon helping to teach the Infant class at 
Sabbath school. Of this service the teacher remarked 


28 OBITUARY. 


afterward: ‘‘Rarely have I had such good help. 
Now I know where to find it.” 3 

On the following Sabbath, May 2nd, the solemn ser- 
vice of uniting with God’s people. In the evening 
the Missionary concert ; and all were engaged in with- 
out special signs of fatigue. 

On Monday we went to New York to meet a sick 
uncle returning from Florida; did errands and re- 


turned by the evening train. 
On Tuesday she rode on horseback in the morning ; 
rested and went to Schooley’s Mountain by the 4 pP. 


M. train; when she followed the Life of Christ, put- 
ting 125 slides into the stereopticon, as her papa de- 
livered his lecture. 

On our way home on Wednesday stopped to see a 
sick friend at Flanders. On returning found the sick 
uncle at the parsonage. Linnet was tired but forgot 
herself in trying to entertain the guests. . On Thurs- 
day put on her white apron to serve at the Ladies’ 
Monthly Missionary Meeting, and drove to Drakes- 
ville with one of the friends. On Saturday helped to 
care for the sick, and prepared the records of her Mis- - 
sion Band; the storm preventing a meeting. On Sab- 
bath at Church in the morning; a little milk served 
as lunch, and with papa she drove to Nolan’s Point, 
Lake Hopatcong, seven miles, to a funeral; returning 
at 3 Pp. mM. they both went immediately to Sabbath 
School; at 5 o’clock there was the burial of a child, 
-and a short service at the grave; although weary she 
attended evening service. On Monday was with the 
friends who were preparing to leave. Monday even- 
ing brought her bible to mamma for some references 





OBITUARY. 29 


in relation to the study of Mt. Sinai, which was to 
have been the next stereopticon lecture; then she 
sat in the large chair and listened to some of 
the notes prepared, and was much interested. On 
Tuesday the sick uncle and his wife were carefully 
handed to the back seat, the trunk occupying the 
front, save where a slender board had been placed, on 
this Linnet sat, papa being in front almost resting on 
her knees; thus they rode to Drakesville. On their 
return they took mamma for an errand. The same 
afternoon Linnet went to Dover on the 4 o’clock train, 
returning on the six; she seemed weary and we urged 
her to rest. On Wednesday she was out and in, and 
riding much as usual, saying ‘‘I can do anything I 
want to, but I do not feel like doing much.’’ Wed- 
nesday evening she insisted on walking to the Post 
Office, saying: ‘‘The air will do me good, I need ex- 
ercise; the: same night she awoke with a feeling of 
cold, but soon rested and seemed to grow better in the 
morning. On Thursday she took the usual remedies 
for malaria, and on Friday rode out all day, saying 
~“T feel so much better in the air.’’ On Saturday it 
rained. She was urgent in her plea to go out, saying 
she wanted the air, and she would be wrapped in any- 
thing. We were obliged to deny her, much as we 
longed to indulge. The last record in her diary (May 
6th) was ‘‘I am better.”’ ; 

On Sabbath morning she wrote a note to the doctor ; 
on the envelope addressing it ‘‘At home;’’ these 
significant words were the last traced by her hand. 
We called on the doctor, carrying the note, and drove 
around in the bracing air; frequently she would say 


32 OBITUARY. 


Linnet knows that mamma loves her; the same 
recognition followed. But when papa-spoke the 
dear child was too far away to hear. He said, Good 
bye, baby dear. We kissed her trembling lips and 
watched her fall asleep,—so sweetly, so calmly, that 
we knew she was safe in the arms of Jesus. 


We turned to the lonely life to take up Linnet’s 


work for Christ. And we earnestly pray that all who 


loved her, and who cherish her memory, will share in 
this work ; that her call to the service of heaven may 
call others to the service of earth; that when we are 
gathered home we many bring many whom we have 
led there through the inspiration of her love for us, 
and her love for Christ. 











Presbyterian Eburch al @uccasunna, A. vt 





BY REV..W.. Wy HALLOWAY. JR: 


MAY 22np, 1886. 


God is not dependent, as man is, upon the element 
of time in His work. He sends out worlds into space 
and gives them:an ellipse which requires a thousand, 
thousand years to traverse. He causes a flower to 
grow in the field which will last but a day, and He 
breathes upon it a perfume as if from His own mouth, 
and gives it a beauty as exquisite as if painted by His 
own hand. A thousand years are with Him as one 
day and one day is as a thousand years. 

She around whose form we gather to-day has had but 
a brief life; and briefer yet has been her life én life. 
-LINNET STODDARD was born July 2ist, 1869; April 
21st, 1886, a month ago, she was buried with Christ in 
baptism. May 2nd, three weeks ago, she united with 
the Church of Christ; two days ago she went to be 
with Christ, which is far better. 

It isa very short biography. It is all summed up 
in afew words. Yet how beautiful and fitting all-— 

5 











34 ADDRESS. 


and especially these last experiences of hers! May 
we not believe that God was thus preparing her for 
the end, giving her this spiritual development at the 
end as the crown of her life? Can we doubt that the 
rapid growth in grace during these last days were His 
work to fit her for her burial—say, rather, for her 
entrance upon the inheritance of the saints in light? 
He sometimes works thus. It is with our lives often 
as it is with some flowers. The process of develop- 
ment is slow in the first stages, but as the end 
approaches, the process perceptibly hastens. 

I saw a night blooming cereus a while ago in 
queenly flower. It had been a long while preparing 
and growing up to this consummation of its being. 
There had been months before the bud had formed 
upon the stem. But when the bud was once formed 
then it grew with marvelous speed, and burst at last 
into radiant glory of flower almost in a moment. 
So, at times, it is with us. The life goes on slowly 
and without event for a long season, and then there 
comes a rich and Divine experience into it, and its 
development seems to be carried on with almost 
miraculous haste, flashing out into perfection of sweet 
character all in a moment. It is God pfeparing for 
the transplanting from earth to heaven. 

We notice it afterward. At the time our eyes are 
holden. But, after the beloved one is gone then we | 
recall it all. We say ‘‘How beautiful she grew 
during those last months! How gentle and patient 
and good! How womanly she became! How earnest 
she was to do the right! How wise her speech!’ It 
has been so with Linnet. Friends have spoken to 


ADDRESS. 35 


me since I have been here to-day of the change there 
has been in her during the months past; of her con- 
sistent walk; of her growing Christian character. 
It was God ripening her for the glory to be revealed 
in her. 
“God moves in a mysterious way, 
His wonders to perform; 
He. plants His footsteps in the sea, 
And rides upon the storm. 


Blind unbelief is sure to err, 
And scan His work in vain; 

God is His own interpreter, 
And He will make it plain.” 


With Jesus it was thirty years of preparation, and 
three years of ministry. With Moses it was forty 
years of wandering in the wilderness toward Canaan, 
and a brief, longing glance into the Promised Land at 
the close. Seldom will life 


* To one man allow 
Time to discover worlds and conquer too.”’ 


We may believe, too, that God intends that Linnet 
shall serve Him in her death as well as in her life. It 


was hoped she would be spared for many years to 
glorify her Lord. But we do not die to ourselves any 


more than we live to ourselves. Perhaps she will 
glorify God more in the manner and time of her death 
than if she had wrought for Him a lengthy period in 


her active ministry. Surely that death must have its 
influence. Surely it must make its impression deep 
and lasting upon you who were her friends and com- 
panions. She, being dead, shall yet speak to you 
through coming years. Can you think of that quick 





36 . ADDRESS. 


| summons and not be moved? Can you recall that 
sudden removal from the midst of earth’s enjoyments, 
and of home’s comforts and of friend’s affections 
. without heeding the lesson? Will there not be a con- 
tinual call to you, in your remembrance of her, to 
| give your heart toGod? Will there not be awakened 
’ longings and prayers that you may rejoice with her 
| among the throng clothed in white before the throne? 
Ah, I do not think that I, or any man could speak as 
| eloquently, as persuasively to you, urging you to take 
the law of Christ for your guide, and the life of Christ 
| for your example as these sealed lips do speak now. 
) May God lead you to attend, and in the morning of 
your days to choose the better part which cannot be 
taken away from you. 

My dear friends: It is only a few years ago that 
you stood by me in scenes similar to these with your — 
Christian sympathy and counsel. I can never forget 
it. And I am glad here’ to-day to be able to remind 
you, in turn, of ‘‘the God of all comfort, who com- 

-forteth us in all our tribulations that we may be able 
to comfort others with the comfort wherewith we are 
comforted of God.”’ 

I bring to your remembrance too the words of the 
Lord Jesus, how he said ‘‘ whosoever believeth in me 
| though he were dead yet shall he live.”’ 

Linnet is not dead. She has disappeared from your 
vision fora season. But she lives still. To our vision 

upon the earth the sun will seem to be extinguished 
this evening when it disappears behind the western 
horizon. But if we were placed at a sufficiently lofty 
altitude we would learn that it is still shining upon 


ADDRESS. OF 


other peoples. It is hidden from us here, but its 
light is not put out nor its heat destroyed. 

So our beloved leave us, but if we could see as God 
sees we would know that though they have been taken 
from our sight they yet live in another world ; ‘‘ they 
are before the throne of God, and serve Him day and 
night in His temple, and He that sitteth on the throne 
shall dwell among them.’’ For ‘‘He is not the God 
of the dead but of the living, and unto Him all 
live,”’ 








mover PODDARD, D.D., 
MAY 30rH, 1886. 


FIGHT THE GOOD FIGHT OF FAITH, LAY HOLD ON 
ETERNAL LIFE.—1 TIMOTHY VI: 12. 


Four weeks ago to-day a band of young disciples 
came to this altar to consecrate themselves unto the 
Lord. To each I gave a Bible text as a motto for 
life. To my daughter I gave this Scripture, ‘‘ Fight 
the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life.’? She 
had been interested in some. departments of Christian 


work for years, but this was an entire consecration, 
a putting on of the whole armor for life service. 
We knew not that only one short month of this was 
for earth; that the Master had a place for her in His 
own presence, a part ready for her in the ministering 
service of heaven. In February, when publicly she 
first arose to express her decision to lead a Christian 
life, she said ‘‘I stood then not so much for myself ; 





40 MEMORIAL SERMON. 


I did not dare to sit still, for I knew if I did not rise 
my friend sitting by me would not.’’ Even then the 
thought of service for the sake of others, and this 
thought did not leave her. One of the last calls she 
made to a sick friend, and early member of the Girl’s 
Mission Band, she said ‘‘Wont you help me think 
how I can do more for Jesus Christ? I do want to 
work for Jesus.”’ | 

The good fight of faith is most clearly seen in 
conquering self. The enemies that hinder Christian 
life are largely the sins and temptations arising in 
our own hearts; and victories there are surest signs 
of victory in more open conflict. The severest con- 
flict of which I knew was in her own room. We 
sat talking of the Christian life; I said, To enter it, 
three things seem to me necessary: repentance— 
sorrow for sin; faith—acceptance of Christ as your - 
Saviour; right living—which shows to the world 
your choice of Christ. She answered, ‘‘I do not 
think I can be a Christian, for while I want to obey 
Christ, and think I accept Him, I have not felt that 
I was a great sinner; I have not had any great sor- 
row for. sin.’’ I answered, Sin against God may be 
in the first part or second part of the Ten Command- 
ments; in the second part it is disobedience to parents, 
murder, adultery, stealing, lying and coveting. In 
these things you have no knowledge of great sin, and 
there can be no great sorrow. In the first part there is 
neglect of God; you have not been always ready to 
acknowledge God. There is your great sin. Christ 
says that not to believe on Him is greatest of all 
sin. Your great sorrow for sin will be that you have 


MEMORIAL SERMON. 41 


so long neglected Christ. Our conversation closed, 
and no more doubts about being a Christian were 
uttered. 

In a few days all her plans about baptism, and 
the place where she wished to unite with the Church, 
were formed. She herself leading the way by in- 
quiry and conversation, with friends here and in 
Newark. Half her life had been spent there, and 
_very dear friends resided there. I had expected 
Newark would be chosen. When stating her de- 
cision, she said, ‘‘I could rarely meet the Church 
there; my home is here. This is the people I am 
often to meet; I want to unite here.’’ She learned, 
April 18th, that several persons were baptized at 
Drakesville ; she said, ‘‘ Why could not I be baptized 
now and come to the Church the first Sabbath in 
- May?”? On the same day, April 18th, she sought 
the advice of the Session, and made request for 
baptism. April 21st was the day chosen. With 
unfaltering step, and with courage begotten of faith, 
she went forward to her baptism into Christ’s death, 
sign and seal of the covenant of grace; May 2nd, with 
nine others, she stood here to acknowledge Christ as 
her Saviour, and sat down with us at the sacrament, 
the emblem of Christ’s body broken for us, and His 
blood shed for the cleansing away of our sin. 

May 6th, at the prayer meeting, Christian growth 
was urged upon young Christians: 1st, By frequent 
and stated seasons of prayer. 2nd, By careful daily 
reading of the Word. Read only so much daily as 
the mind will hold; choose the choicest thought for 
meditation during the day. 3rd, At prayer meeting, 

6 


42 MEMORIAL SERMON. 


bring the choicest of all the week for the help and 
benefit of others. This will help to give freshness 
and profit to the prayer meeting. 

May 13th, rain adjourned the prayer meeting. On 
the next day, May 14th, as we rode for her comfort, 
I said, The prayer meeting did not permit us to get 
any choice thoughts from any Christian last night, 
but I would like to know the choice thoughts of your 
reading. Without hesitation or delay, she answered, 
‘Paul says of the Gentiles, That they are the wild 
olive grafted into the good olive tree, and they take 
of the root and fatness of the good olive; the Gentiles 
have as good right to all the promises and blessings of 
God as the Jews, but the Gentiles must take heed ; 
they stand by faith; and Paul says to them, If God 
spare not the natural branches, take heed lest He spare 
not thee.’’ Hearing this, how did my heart glow with 
gratitude; that which I had desired God had per- 
mitted me to see in the growth of this young Chris- 
tian in knowledge and grasp of God’s word. This 
is such a part of the good fight of faith that I am 
sure the victory will be gained. 

In every Christian life there is the soldier element, 
and a large portion of that life is spent in the 
drill and practice of soldier duties. What are the 
drill duties of faith, and what the conflicts of faith 
into which the Christian is to enter. and in which he 
is to struggle till faith is turned to sight, and con- 
flict to victory ? 


First, To get right ideas of God. God is a spirit, 


and they that worship Him must worship in spirit 
and in truth. We must believe that God is, and 





Oo” 
Re 


MEMORIAL SERMON. 43 


that He is a rewarder of all such as diligently seek 
Him. This other truth follows at once: God is greatly 
displeased with the sin of having any otherGod. He 
is jealous of His own honor, and the place He holds 
in the hearts of His creatures. God’s word gives 
such a view of God, and the struggle of our faith is 
to grasp it and hold it, and live under it. This is 
the soldier drill of faith. 


Second, The conflict of faith: which is largely to 
conquer the doubts which spring up in our minds 


about duty to God. Rarely can you make a good 
soldier of an old man; not because he is unwilling 
but his physical hardness hinders facility of motion, 
and easy learning of movements. Faith must pos- 
sess and conquer the mind and bring it into subjec- 
tion to the law of Christ, and this more easily in 
youth. Not what we know, but what is revealed is 
the law of faith, and faith will conquer doubts; 
doubts that will not yield to faith are our masters, 
and they become the law of life and a poor comfort 
for the future. But faith endures as seeing that 
which is invisible, and rests on that which an Al- 
mighty Saviour can give. Nothing is impossible with 
God in the victories of faith. 

Third, The good fight of faith forecasts a herd 
conflict of soul with the powers of evil. Look at 
your own or any other human soul. Daily victories 
over the power of sin alone give composure, strength, 
courage and hope gained at fearful cost. 

In a charge on the enemy, a soldier is sometimes 
called to open up a way for his companions by his 
own death. If this Christian soldier is to do her life- 


44. MEMORIAL SERMON. 


work in her death the shortness of the conflict will 
hasten on the victory. They tell us that in battle 
the sound that strikes deeper into the head of the 
soldier than the roar of cannon is the command close 
up the ranks. A comrade has fallen; take the empty 
place; hold the advantage gained. Honor the dead 
by holding the ground secured. In the battle of life - 
we are called to close up the ranks; come close to- 
gether, and those on the outside come into the midst 
of the conflict and share in the victory. If our life 
conflicts be not for Christ, life is a failure. In the 
good fight of faith, to lay hold on eternal life, no 
one can afford to be out of the strife. It is to lay 
hold on eternal life, which is the glory of our Christ. 
We glorify Christ fighting the good fight of faith. 


What else was comprehended in this brief service ? 
letters to friends, prayer meetings and home duties. 
One writes, ‘“No other of my young friends ever asked 
me to think of my spiritual condition and see whether 
I was on the right path or the wrong.’’ Another said, 
‘‘She promised to pray for me every day at half-past 
five o’clock.’? Another, ‘‘She wrote me at once of het 
decision to serve Christ, and wished I would join in 
this service.’’? Thus she fought the good fight of faith 
and laid hold on eternal life. The Master wanted 
this yonng soldier by His own side, and He called 
and crowned her. Four weeks from the day she was 
buried with Him by baptism she was ready for 
burial ; and three days later she, her body, was laid 
in the grave which Christ hallowed, and from which 
she will arise at His command. The soul has gone 


MEMORIAL SERMON. 45 


home. Think of your young companion as in heaven, 
and so live as to meet her there. 

To the Mission Band that she lovea I would say, 
You mourn not to see her face on earth, you shall 
see it again in heaven. Work for Christ; fight the 
good fight of faith. To young companions, Re- 
member—life is short. Be careful not to waste the | 
moments, the opportunities; so live as to be ready 
at any moment to go home. So often in the struggle 
of thirty hours there rang out in sharp tones, ‘‘ Stand 
up, stand up;’’ and more often in plaintive plead- 
ing, ‘‘Please, dear God, let me go; dear God do 
please let me go.’’ God has answered the prayer, 
and in the new home she waits for us. When you 
look at her picture, or recall her memory, or pass 
the earthly resting place, remember Christ has wel- 
comed her; friends have welcomed her over there, 
and she now is watching and waiting for you. Fight 
the good fight of faith ; lay hold on eternal life. 























at Fourteen years. 


SELECTIONS FROM LETTERS. 


—_—e<>e—_——_ 





‘*Too precious for earth. God has taken your 
treasure to Himself; there will your hearts be until 
the grand reunion.”’ 


‘Only we who were intimate with dear Linnet 
know our loss; her school friends will always re- 
member her as bright, happy Linnet. A friend to 
whom all could go in gloom or sunshine, and I hope 
we will all follow the good example she set us, so 
that in the hereafter we may join her in the home 
prepared for God’s children.”’ 


‘‘T loved Linnet as I seldom loved my girl friends.”’ 


‘* But better things God is giving to Linnet, having 


promoted her to a higher class in His own immediate 
presence; there she is being taught and trained for 
His service and glory as she could not be here with 
the hindrances she must have met. You would not 
Keep her back from Jesus if you could. In this little 
while we are permitted to have fellowship with Him 


in His sufferings.’ 





48 SELECTIONS FROM LETTERS. 


‘¢ He who comes with the cup of sorrow in one hand 
holds in the other the cup of healing balm, and while 
we are called to drink of one cup we may also drink 
of the other.”’ : 3 


‘*Of one thing I am sure—the Lord is with you, 
according to His word.’’ 


‘¢*The soul that Knows nowhere else to fly, flies to 
God; and to sink into the arms of Infinite love is 
to weep no longer.’’ | 


‘* Dear Linnet is remembered by every one who saw 
her even as a child.”’ 


‘‘T have sweetest memories of the bright life; she 
only knew the bright side of life. For her the glory ; 
for you the bitterness of pain.” 


‘“¢ In all our afflictions He is afflicted.’’ 


‘‘“The regard I felt for that bright and joyous life 
was deep and sincere.”’ 


‘‘In the flush of youth; so bright, so gifted, so 
good.”’ 


‘* Your joy is turned into mourning; your light into 
darkness.”’ | 


‘‘ You have a precious child in heaven. Jesus loved 
her and has taken her to Himself.”’ 


‘‘She had given her heart to Him, and He could 
no longer spare the bright jewel from His crown ; 
now there remains sweetest memories of the past, 





SELECTIONS FROM LETTERS. 49 


and a patient waiting for the meeting beyond the 


river. *What I do thou knowest not now, but thou 
shalt Know hereafter.’’ ’ 


‘* Her life was unusually bright and free from care. 
She will be greatly missed by her companions.”’ 


‘* You needed her so much; her bright, sweet, young 
lifein your home. Her life was one great joy, crowned 
with a peaceful death. The sorrow and desolation are 
yours ; for her, joy, peace and the wonderful com- 
panionship of the Master. It seems to me like one 
crowning act of self-sacrifice demanded of the great 
mother love.”’ 


‘‘The Father, infinite in wisdom, love and sym- 
pathy, has taken her and we sit dumb; but He will 


ere long restore her to you in His better home, where 
there are no partings.”’ 


‘The bitterness of parting with loved ones only 
those fully understand who have suffered loss. You 
rest in belief that all things work together for good 
to those who love God.”’ 


“It is a comfort to know that the great angel let 
her down into the valley gently and tenderly. She 
wrote to me frequently on the subject of religion, 
especially in the late months.’’ 


‘““The example that dear Linnet has left will give 
strength and courage to all who ever knew her. To 
think of the great work she was permitted to do, 
during the few years she was with us, cannot but fill 
our hearts with joy while we are mystified and stricken 





5O SELECTIONS FROM LETTERS. 


by this Providence. In the work of Linnet’s short 
stay we see the work of a life-time for others. I pray 
that all who ever knew her may take a lesson from so 
noble a character.’’ 


‘‘Tt seems as if a light had come to earth, remained 
for a season, then returned to heaven. A reflection 
of its beauty will ever remain in hallowed memories 
to lead us in the path that grows brighter unto the 
perfect day.”’ 


‘‘The nearer we come to our beloved master, the 
closer we are to our loved ones.”’ 


‘‘T cannot express my sorrow that a life so lovely 
and promising should be taken away. The contem- 
plation of your bereavement brings tears to my eyes 
which have not flowed since I reached manhood. I 
claim a share in this bereavement.”’ 


‘‘T trust it will not be an intrusion if I, so much a 
stranger, say I have suffered too, and sorrow with 
you ; yes, I must add, rejoice with you in the victory 
which overcometh even our faith.’’ 


‘‘What bright hopes for you are blighted; what 
desolation sweeps away the anticipated joy. It is 
not human strength that rises to work after such a 
crushing blow. Unseen arms must be holding you 
up and Infinite wisdom directing.” 


‘‘T feel that I can say nothing to bring comfort to 
such a sorrow as yours. I am too much overwhelmed 
with my own selfish grief, which seems to oppress 
more every day. The sweet balm which faith gives; 


SELECTIONS FROM LETTERS. 51 


your trust in the inscrutabe wisdom of the Almighty, 
and the unshaken belief that the pure, sweet soul still 
lives and awaits you in heaven, this will do much to 
lighten your burden. Death may have taken her 
away forever from this world, yet I know the sister- 
love still lives with us ; I cannot think otherwise.”’ 


‘When you think of Linnet’s many friends who 
feel a sense of personal loss in her departure, count 
in our girls, and all of us, in the number.”’ 


‘‘How welcome the recollection that during her 
stay here, in preparation for the better country, she 
was almost always with you, and that she gave her- 
self so unreservedly to Christ.”’ 


‘‘T can imagine some of the recollections—those 
bright, blissful days beyond the Atlantic when you 
were seeing the Old World through your own and 
through Linnet’s younger eyes; and those evenings 
when these scenes were reviewed for the pleasure of 
others, the father at one end of the church and the 
daughter in skillful operation of the Jantern at the 
other. How many recollections must come to show the 
worth of your treasure and deepen the feeling of loss. 
What an influence these memories must exert upon 
her circle of young friends; what better token of 
their affection could they give than a prompt, bearty 
public acknowledgment of her Saviour. Your bird 
has gone hence ; may the life-giving, holy dove be in 
your home to bring you the comfort that you have 
so often taken to others.”’ 


‘‘In Linnet I found the truest and best of all my 
young friends, and the only one who ever asked me 


52 SELECTIONS FROM LETTERS. 


to think of my spiritual condition and see whether 
I was in the right path or the wrong. I think her 
influence has done more to make me better than any- — 
thing else in this world, and may God make the les- 
son of her peaceful death sink deep, deep into my 
sinful heart, and work there the good which Linnet 
prayed for so earnestly and often. May God recon- 
cile you to your loss. He has only called to His 
arms one who was too pure and saintly for this 
wicked world, and she is at peace for all eternity.’’ 


‘The question is, in my mind, did not she by her 
short stay accomplish more than some of us to whom 
the Father has given a longer life? Could she not by 
her Christian life and death have accomplisbed some 
great good, and thus be ready for the greater service 
in the better life? Or could the Almighty, in His 
Infinite wisdom have foreseen great trouble and re- 
leased her from suffering? This is a drop of comfort 
in a cup of sorrow filled to the brim and overflowing.”’ 


‘‘They who have undergone, and overcome, stand 
with their keys to open life’s emergencies to their fel- 
low pilgrims. The wondrous power of experience 
ennobles our sorrows by making them useful. Every 
stroke of affliction is God putting into our hands the 
key of that sorrow to unlock its mysteries for others. 
Some of these keys are golden, some iron; and we 
find our joy in our sorrow as we can open a way for 
others who also suffer, that we may comfort others 
with the comfort wherewith we are comforted of God.” 


‘‘T have hardly a right to intrude upon the sacred 


SELECTIONS FROM LETTERS. 53 


privacy of your deep sorrow, but I am sure you will 
pardon me for wishing to mingle my tears with yours 
at this time, and to tell you how keenly we all sympa- 
thize with you and Dr. Stoddard in your sudden be- 
reavement. Your note was handed to George just as 
we were sitting down to dinner, to-day ; he could not 
repeat the painful news, but silently passed the paper 
to me, leaving me to break it to the rest of the family. 
Both George and Charles soon left the table, and we 
all felt as if we had heard of the loss of one of our 
own family. My wife said that she could scarcely 
believe that she had never seen Linnet ; her name had 
been such a ‘household word’ with us for the past 
two years. If we, who Knew the dear child only in 
this comparatively slight way feel her loss so much 
what a terrible blow must it be to you, and what a 
fearful gap it must make in your little family circle ; 
I will not presume to say that I can fully conceive of 
it for I have never lost a child. May He who loves 
us when He chastens us give you strength to bear it. 
In a Jetter that Linnet wrote to the boys, only a few 
days ago, She spoke somewhat hopefully of the plan 
of your crossing the ocean again with us; and now 
she has suddenly gone across that darker, broader 
sea, from whose farther shore there is no return to 
this terrestial land; but it is a fair and happy coun- 
try on the other side of that swelling flood, and, as 
you say, we will hope that we may all one day rejoin 
her there.”’ 


‘* Now that school has closed I feel a constant wish 
to hear some one speak of Linnet, if it is only to men- 


54 SELECTIONS FROM LETTERS. 


tion her name. As long as I sat in the school room 
she was so vividly present to my mind that I could 
hardly realize that she was not there. It seemed as 
if I need only to look up from my book and see 
her bright, happy, sunny face; always kind, always 
bright. Her habitual expression of countenance was 
very beautiful; Iam glad to have such a picture in ~ 
my mind. I did not know until lately what beauty 
of soul there was in Linnet’s face; and yet it was 
always there. Now, in recalling her, I think only of 
the expression ; so full of love and good-will toward 
every one. It is not. hard to think of such a face in 
heaven. Its cheerfulness did me good while it was in 
my sight, and it does me good now, in memory. I 
need not tell you that Linnet’s death made a deep im- 
pression on the school; it was hard work to go on to 
the end of the session. Some of the older pupils left 
school ; others tried to continue, but did not get back 
any spirit for the work. It was particularly hard to 
close with the evening in the parlor, as usual. I 
thought I could not do that, at first, but the younger 
children, who by that time constituted the body of 
the school, were expecting it and anticipating it with 
pleasure, and I could not let them think that they 
were losing a little amusement now throngh Linnet, 
when she had always done much to help them in 
every pleasure. I wish I knew how to express my 
sympathy with you and Dr. Stoddard. At least let 
me thank you for having let me see what I shall 
always remember as an ideal Christian home.’’ 


‘“T have spent much time in thinking of Linnet’s 





SELECTIONS FROM LETTERS. 5D 


school life yet I do not find it easy to write anything 
resembling a connected account of it.. The part that 
fills my mind cannot be put in words; the picture of 
Linnet herself, as she sat hard at work in the school- 
room, her expressive face showing to those who knew 
her what was passing in her mind: From the first 
her presence in the school was a source of pleasure 
to both teachers and pupils. She was a universal 
favorite; she had pleasant words and kind thoughts 
for all, and from all. We soon found that. she’ was 
thoroughly to be trusted ; she was always to be found 
in her place at the right time, and she was always well 
prepared for recitations. Her conscientiousness in 
this respect was extreme; she not only needed no 


urging from her teachers, she was unwilling to neg- 


lect lessons even when the reasons for doing so were 
sufficiently strong to satisfy all but herself. When 
absent from school she was in the habit of studying 
the lessons, which would otherwise have been omitted, 
sending her exercises and compositions to be exam- 
ined by me. The first time that this occurred was 
during a fortnight spent in Saratoga, when she was 
only thirteen years of age, and at a time when she 
had a great deal to occupy her attention, being placed 
in circumstances which would certainly have seemed 
to most girls ample excuse for idleness; the last time 
was only a few weeks before her death. The influence 
for good which such a pupil can exert is very great; 
and Linnet was formed by nature to influence those 
with whom she came in contact. Yet even more 
than her carefulness in study we valued her thorough 
kindness of heart, which made her speak and think 





56 SELECTIONS FROM LETTERS. 


charitably of others; her entire freedom from envy, 
suspicion and malice, and from display of any kind ; 
her frank, outspoken truthfulness which never hurt 
others, because the thoughts which were so freely 
spoken were good thoughts. All these things were 
matters of course to you who have had Linnet all 
her short life; they are not at all matters of course 
in a schoolroom. During the last month of her life 
she was in school but a few days. We knew that 
she was not in good health, but we did not dream of 
actual danger. We spoke of her frequently, putting 
off some parts of our school work ‘‘ until Linnet comes 
back.”? When we found that she was not to come 
back no one had any heart for the work thus deferred ; 
we were obliged to substitute other lessons, where that 
could be done. When we heard that the illness was 
assuming a serious form we watched eagerly for news, 
yet stil] without anticipating anything more than pro- 
longed suffering for her, and prolonged waiting for 
us, before we could see her again. The news of her 
death came suddenly, annihilating for the time every 
other thought. At first we refused to believe it; even 
yet it seems part of an evil dream. ‘The school was 
filled with mourning ; we could not speak of Linnet, 
and we could not think of anything else. You say 
that you do not want eulogy, and I have tried to 
refrain; the attempt prevents me, possibly, from re- 
calling just those incidents which might be recorded 
here. J am sorry that I cannot find language to ex- 
press the feelings of affection, admiration, respect, 
gratitude, that fill my heart in thinking of Linnet, so 
as to make a fitting tribute now. It is the picture of 


SELECTIONS FROM LETTERS. 57 


Linnet herself which comes up before me that makes 
me despair of finding words to represent it. Tome 
all language sounds cold; and I sit thinking of her, 
without writing. I use the word ‘we’ through my 
letter to mean both pupils and teachers. Weall loved 
and admired Linnet. Miss C *s opinion of her 
I know to have been like mine, and my sister’s also. 
It could not be otherwise with those who knew her. 
I have said nothing about one of Linnet’s most pleas- 
ing characteristics, because it belongs more to her 
home life than to her school life. I mean the atten- 
tion which she showed to those older than herself. 
She seemed to find pleasure in it, so doubling the 
pleasure which she gave; for every one enjoys the 
willing companionship of a young girl. I have fre- 
quently noticed Linnet’s conduct in this respect, and 
I have heard of it from my mother and others. I 
myself have had a dull day made bright by an un- 
expected meeting with her, more than once.”’ 


‘“One of the most beautiful developments in youth 
is that of the religious nature, and perhaps never 
more beautiful and helpful than to the eyes and lives 
of other young persons who are alike interested in 
the same matter. It was my highly esteemed privi- 
lege to be very thoroughly acquainted with Linnet’s 
thoughts and feelings in reference to the great theme, 
and I may have seen some of the inner beauties of 
her Christian heart that others have not, and were it 
indeed possible how gladly would I reflect them for 
the comfort of the many friends who listen so eagerly 
for any word descriptive of one so dear to them. 

8 





58 SELECTIONS FROM LETTERS. 


It is to be remarked what an unusual number of very 
true friends Linnet had. Friendships are common, 
and a special intense friendship is very frequently 
seen, but never in my acquaintanceship have I known 
of any young woman who held so many real warm 
true friends, not only of like age but younger and 
older, as did Linnet. To those who knew her as ac- 
quaintances only this may have been a matter of sur- 
prise, but not so to the favored many who felt the 
warmth of her loving interest in their welfare, ex- 
pressed not only in words but deeds; and thus she 
gleaned alway, even among the sheaves, until many, 
many lives were happier and hearts better for her 
reigning in them. Having been for years deeply in- 
terested in Christ-like work for others her whole 
character was thus nurtured up to the fullness it at- 
tained, and her openly confessing Christ on the first 
Sabbath in May was to her Christian life like the 
breeze which carries the already created fragrance of 
the flower farther and farther upon its mission of 
blessing. Every day was a branch on the tree of life 
bearing its own peculiar fruit in deeds of kindness 
and benevolence, ripened by the glow of the pure true 
nature, and plucked for the unfortunate and friend- 
less. The originality which was in a pleasing way 
prominently hers brightened every dark spot, and 
freshened everything upon which its influence fell. 
The beautiful hight has not gone out, but is only trans- 
ferred to the Kingdom of Light where its radiance 
will more fully glorify the Creator, while the trail of 
light and warmth which was shed here below, and . 
which leads to the very gates of Heaven, will always 


SELECTIONS FROM LETTERS. D9 


remain as a perpetual joy and guide to lighten the 
way Home.”’ 


‘*T only learned last evening of the sore and great 
affliction that has befallen you, and was about writing 
you a word of sympathy, when your favor came. I 
would very much like to be with you to-morrow, but 
my engagements are such as to make it impossible. 
The blow must have fallen very suddenly upon you; 
I had not even learned of your danghter’s illness. 
‘The Lord comfort you in your great sorrow. Alas, 
how full of mystery is our earthly experience. How 
my heart often longs for the ‘ Land afar off, where we 
shall see the King in His beauty, and the inhabitants 
shall no more say I am sick.’ May you and your 
dear wife see the Hand which Christian saw, after his 
conflict with Apollyon, stretched out of the cloud 
towards him holding a branch plucked off of the 
Tree of Life, wherewithal he refreshed himself. The 
same Jesus who brought light to Jairus’ house is your 
helper too, and His words have greater and more 
blessed meaning now than then: ‘the Maid is not 
dead but sleepeth.’ ”’ 








S| 








AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED T0 THE BEREAVED PARENTS OF MISS LINNET STODDARD. 


I had a flow’r—a lovely flower, 
It charmed my ravished eye; 

I little thought, within an hour, 
To see it droop and die. 


I saw a Light—a brilliant light, 
I revel’d in its beams; 

But it grew dim—became as night, 
Like fancy’s mocking dreams. 


I saw the morning’s sun arise, 
I hail’d the jocund day; 

But soon dense clouds o’ercast the skies, 
Which drove my joys away. 


In sorrow I sat down to weep— 
To bitterly complain 

That death should sweep into its deep 
The sweetest in Love’s train. 


But I arose in calm repose 
To heed the Master’s call; 

A cheering thought, composure wrought, 
Our Father knows it all. 


62 COMPENSATIONS. 


In Time’s cold vale, fond hopes may fail; 
These cherish’d treasures fade; 

But over there—forever fair— 
Our Treasures all are laid. 


The flow’rs may bloom upon the tomb 
Where forms in waiting rest; 

In Heaven above, baptized in Love, 
All re-born souls are blest. 


Another thought this solace brought; 
A sweet submission won; 

Whatever smart may pain my heart, 
Lord! “Let Thy will be done.” 


Dear heart be still—’tis Jesns’ will, 
I must submissive be; 

Whate’er the loss, I'll bear the cross, 
My Saviour did for me. 


We here must still Our mission fill, 
In giving joy for pain; 

Then “By and By,” in peace on high, 
Receive our own again. 


Since it is meet, it should be sweet, 
Though dim to mortal sight, 

To kiss the rod—applied by God; 
The father’s will is “ Right”! 


é THOS. F. CLANCY. 
DRAKESVILLE, MAy 24th, 1886. 








"Tis sweet, yet sad, to die in youth — 
While still in life ’tis May, 

Just at the dawn of Summer hours, 
When all is bright and gay; 

And now when in their loveliness 
The scenes of May appear, 

And field, and grove, and river tell, 
A paradise is here. 


’Tis sad to leave such charms behind, 
Which so delight the eye, 

And sadder much to part with those 
Held by love’s tenderest tie ; 

And deeper yet is felt the pang 
By those who still remain, 

For lost are sweet companionships 
We never here regain. 


- *Tis sweet to be thus called away 
To fairer fields and flowers 

Along Life’s river, where they know 
The sweetest, happiest hours; 

Among the loved who wait us there 
Upon the other side, 

And first in all the heavenly host 
The Lamb who for us died. 


IN MEMORY. 


Whatever is our Father’s will, 
Concerning us below, 

Is good, and right, and just, and true, 
Which we but slowly know; 

And if at night, or noon, or morn, 
We take away our flight, 

’Tis but the rising through the mist 
To the immortal light. 


The last I saw thee, youthful friend, 
Was when I heard thy vow 
To follow Jesus through thy life: 
How soon, and blest art thou! 
The days are few, like yesterday, 
And like a dream they’ve flown; 
Then thou wert in the bloom of youth, 
~ And now thou hast thy crown. 


We think of her who gave thee birth, 
Now in the shadows gray, 

But. it will be to her a joy, 
More sweet than heavenly lay, 

To know she has a darling child 
Free from a world like this; 

For here’s but passing happiness, 
With Thee unending bliss. 


She often will recall thy speech, 
And hear thy merry laugh; 
Which were as honey to her lips, 
And nectar she did quaff; 
But sweeter far *twill be to rest 
In blessed hope—that love, 
Which gives to life its hallowed flame, 


Is more Divine above. 
KAPPA. 
FISHKILL-ON-THE-Hupson, May 21, 1886. . 








FOR LINNET, ON HER NINTH BIRTHDAY, WITH THE HEART- 


LOVE AND PRAYER OF HER MOTHER, 


Salve oiieralmaty 


On this day, so full of gladness, 
We will sing with heart and voice 
Of our Heavenly Father’s goodness, 
And with gratitude rejoice. 


Nine times has the bud unfolded, 
Nine times has the Summer sun 
-Ripened fruits, which Autumn gathered 
For nine Winters, one by one, 


Since the little pilgrim started 
On a new and winding way; 

But a Hand unseen has guided, 
Every night, and every day. 


9 





66 BIRTHDAY GREETINGS. 


May the years of life be given 
To this faithful Loving Guide; 
And thro’ endless years in Heaven 
May she with the blest abide! 


“Praise Him every Sabbath, 
Praise Him every day; 
For His boundless goodness, 
Ever praise and pray.” 





LEVEN (FOOD WISHES FOR MY « LINNET’S i FLEVENTH 


BIRTHDAY, JULY 21, 1880. 


The grace of each Beatitude 
The heart and life adorn! 

As they are with the Truth imbued 
In girlhood’s early morn.* 


* Blessed ave the poor in spirit: for theirsis the kingdom of heaven. Blessed 
are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted. Blessed ave the meek : for 
they shall inherit the earth. Blessed ae they which do hunger and thirst after 
righteousness: for they shall be filled. Blessed ave the merciful: for they shall 
obtain mercy. Blessed ave the pure in heart: for they shall see God. Blessed 
are the peace-makers: for they shall be called the children of God. Blessed are 
they which are persecuted for righteousness’ sake: for theirs is the kingdom of 
heaven.—MarTt. v: 3-10. 


Above all things to be in health, 
That study and that play, 

May gather, for the spirit, wealth 
That cannot pass away.t 


t Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, 
even as thy soul prospereth.—3 JoHN: 2. 


BIRTHDAY GREETINGS. 67 


Thy basket, and thy store, be blest; 
A Father’s hand of love, 
Bestowing on thee what is best; 
It all comes from above.* 


* Blessed shail be thy basket and thy store.—Drurt, xxviii: 5. 


Thy going out and coming in, 
Be guarded night and day, 
From every harm and every sin, 

That may beset thy way.t 


+The Lorp shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in from this time 
forth, and even forevermore.—Ps. cxxi: 8. 


Sincere and earnest be the cry, 
Confiding all its care; 

No slumber dims the watchful Eye, 
And God is everywhere.{ 


t Be careful for nothing; but in everything by prayer and supplication with 
thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.—Pait. iv: 6. 


Thy courtesy, thy kindly thought, 
Be like the gentle dew; 

In quietness its work is wrought, 
Yet marvels can it do.§ 


§ Finally, be ye all of one mind, having compassion one of another; love as 
brethren, de pitiful, be courteous.—1 PETER 3: 8. 


Example is the trace we make 
Upon the fiowing tide; 

Be faithful for thine own dear sake, 
And those on either side.|| 


| But godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that 
now is, and of that which is to come.—1 Tim. iv: 12. 





BIRTHDAY GREETINGS. 


Gleam thy bright track upon the sea, 


Tho’ dark its waves may rise; 
We live for an eternity; 
Be thou among the wise* 


* While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which 
are not seen: for the things which are seen ave temporal; but the things which 
are not seen are eternal.—2 Cor. iv: 18. 


Who shine as stars in Heaven’s own blue, 
When present things are past; 

Some worthy aim each day pursue, 
Secure the things that last.t 


+ And they that be wise, shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and 
they that turn many to righteousness, as the stars for ever and ever.—DAN. xii: 3. 


As sunbeams fall upon the flower, 
And gladden as they come, 

So may you be, from hour to hour, 
A blessing in your home.{ 


+ Beloved, let us love one another: for bove is of God; and every one that 
loveth is born of God, and knowcth God.—1 Joun iy: 7. 


The treasures of an earthly clime 
For thee I would implore, 

But most of all the gifts sublime 
Your own, forevermore.§ 


§ But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these 
things shall be added unto you.—MartT. vi: 33. 


And when the mortal tie is riven, 
And mother falls asleep; 

The hope that we shall meet in Heaven, 
Will comfort and will keep.|| 


| For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which 
sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.—1 Twess. iy: 14. 





BIRTHDAY GREETINGS. 69 


Until the household band entire 
Shall gather round the Throne, 

To join with the angelic choir 
In praising God alone.* 


* The whole family in heaven.-—Epn, iii: 15. 


x HEART OFFERING FROM MotTHER. 





0 ape Od a ea 


F rom tlie fields, where the daisies inspired the sweet song, 
Our Linnett is coming to join the great throng 

U pon the broad highway where the pilgrims of time 

R epeat earnest calls to a mission sublime; . 

T he Guide of our youth, in the day, in the night, 

E ach step will appoint and encircle with light; 

E arth’s toil and its pleasures a blessing be given, 

N oble work for this present, and “well done” in heaven. 


WitH Mama's Love. 


Succasunna, N.J., JULY 21, 1883. 


FIFTEEN, 


——__—————— 


The dew-drops of morning, on leaflet and flower, 
Are gems in the sunshine of this favored hour, 
As midway the dawn and the noontide we meet 
The maid at the milestone and tenderly greet. 


woe BIRTHDAY GREETINGS. 


The path has been hedged with the blossoms’ of Spring, 
It echoed with notes of the bird on the wing; 

The brook at its side, rippling over the lea, 

Reflected a life quite as sparkling and free. 


She gathered the buds, and scattered them wide; 
She learned the sweet song, and its ministry tried; 
The waters she quaffed, in her bright girlish way, 
As study and frolic divided the day. 


The fountain of knowledge will yield more and more 
As it leads to the ocean of limitless store, 

And fragrant the planting of thought and of care, © 
While gladsome the heart that finds God everywhere. 


His blessing go with you! The path is untried; 
Hach step is important, keep close to the Guide; 
What hopes and what promises beacon to you! 

So much you may win, and so much you may do! 


That next to your hand is the work of the hour, 

As mantled by love you are girded with power; 

The home will be brightened, the world will be blest, 
And you will be happy, in doing your best. 


As milestones are numbered in pilgrimage here, 
The legend engraven, by smile or by tear, 

Will record your progress, as thus you have come 
Still nearer and nearer to resting at home, 


Until at the threshold, the sweet heavenly chime 
Shall ring, as your welcome, the farewell to time ; 
And the glow of the sunset of earth fade away 
In the glorious morn of Eternity’s day. 


WITH Mamoa’s Love. 


Succasunna, N.d., JuLy 21, 1884. 





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BIRTHDAY GREETINGS. 71 


OCs Ny 


S IXTEEN, the bud unfolded—the fragrance of the flower 

Is promise of the fruit of the oncoming hour; 

X times the largest number you can name to-day 

T he wishes of our hearts for every good alway; 

EK ach year of time is a Mosaic gem, inlaid 

E ach with the brighter hues, and those of sombre shade: 

No one complete unless the tints of heaven pervade. 
FOR PINNET--FROM MAMMA. 


Succasunna, N. J., JULY 21, 1885. 





Meee NINE Te-P ROM MAMMA, 


S ince thy last birthday, precious child, thy love, 
Earnest and true, was given to one above; 
V ows had been sealed one month, the Bridegroom came, 
E xalted thee to share His home, and name; 
N ow as you walk with Him in realms of light, 
Thy loved ones walk with Him in shades of night; 
EK ach clinging to the hand of one Dear Guide, 
E ach near the other—one on either side; 
N earer each step, and ere long to abide 

‘Together, 

Forever, 

Forever with the Lord. 

JULY 21, 1886. 





© xtract from Linnet's Last Letter, 


WRITTEN ONE WEEK BEFORE GOING HOME. 





‘‘T did not hear much of what you and mamma 
and papa were talking about the last night you were 
here, but I heard enough to make me think you 
- were not a Christian; but I think I heard you say 
also that you would read a portion of the Scripture 
and pray over it—did I not? You will not pray 
alone, for I am very anxious that my BROTHERS 
- should know and love Christ. Vow 7s the accepted 
time, do not put it off; for you may put it off till 
it will be foo late. You need Christ, and Christ 
needs you to work for Him. QO, don’t put it off one 
day : to-morrow may be too late. You really belong 
to Christ, for he has died to save us all. He has 
purchased us with a price. 


Hoping to hear good news from you both soon, 
Your true friend, 
LINNET STODDARD. 


P.S8. I have an idea; can we not meet a few 
minutes for prayer, even though so far distant? I 
shall meet you at half-past five until I hear from you 
of a more convenient time. 

LINNET.” 


10 











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LEAFLETS 


FOR THE USE OF THE 


moOuUNG GiRES: MISSION BAND, 


BY LINNETS MOTHER, 


PUB LTS HED BY R'E‘OU EST. 


Pee LON S: 


I PROMISE TO 


R ead prayerfully my Bible, day by day; 

E nrich the heart by storing part away. 

S eek wisdom when I rise, and ere I sleep; 

O ’er every thought, and word, a watch-care keep. 
L ive for a true and noble aim, each hour;. 

U se for my Saviour every gift and power. 

T ry to do something that shall ever last, 

I mprove each moment as it flieth past; 

O n every shadowed path some brightness cast. 
N ow walk with Christ, and share His work of love, 


So follow those who dwell ith Han above. 
a 


18 LEAFLETS. 


While our Linnet is singing His praises above, 
. Our voices may join in the anthem of heaven 
If our hearts are attuned to th’ dear Saviour’s love, 
If His spirit, in answer to prayer, has been given. 


As you sing in the meetings, remember, dear Band, 
You are learning the notes of the hymn that they sing, 
As with crowns, and with harps, the blessed ones stand 
: By the throne of their Saviour, their God and their King. 





‘ALL MUST DIE SOMETIME.’’—1rInnet. 


—— 


Some in the early morning, 
Some at the noontide hour, 

The blossom just unfolding 
The fragrant opened flower. 


Some when the cluster ripens 
And the golden fruit hangs low, 

As the gray of twilight deepens, 
When fades the sunset glow. 


Some in the dawning glory, 
Some in the evening shade; 

Of each the one short story, 

“As a leaf we all must fade.” 


The blessed Lord is sending 
For bud or fruit or flower, 

As the home above is needing 
With every passing hour. 


LEAFLETS. 19 


The choice, the rarest flowers 
To Heaven do not deny; 

Transplanted they are ours, 
Where they can never die. 


The gathered fruit will ever 
Be free from blight or frost ; 
And beautiful forever 
Our treasure saved, not lost. 


*“ All must die sometime;” our time 
May be so very near, 

That when the vesper hour shall chime 
Our souls may not be here. 


Be ready when He cometh, 
At morn, at noon, or night; 

Whatever plan He chooseth 
Our study and delight. 


A cheerful service given 
At all times to His will, 

In the place of earth or heaven, 
That God may bid us fill. 


If we must die, our living 
Should true and earnest be, 

That we may live, in dying 
Live, live eternally. 


«> delion« 


80 LEAFLETS. 


\ 


“T WANT ALL ‘THE BAND’ TO COME TO 
CHRIST THIS YEAR !—n.innet. 


“T go to prepare you a place,” said the Saviour, 
And when work is finished for each I will come; 
Our Linnet is with the dear Lord and Redeemer, 


He came for her early, and she has gone home. 


A message was sent from the banks of the river, 
“T want all the BAND to love Jesus this year ;” 
The lambs of the fold, on this side, or the other, 


Are safe—always safe, for the Shepherd is near. 


Dear BAND, that He gave me to love and to cherish, 
I leave you in care that is tender and true; 
And those on the mountains, who wander and perish, 


Again I would call—I would call them through you. 


As you listen each day to our dear Shepherd’s voice, 
When He calls you by name, for His errands of love; 
As you follow his footsteps your hearts will rejoice, 


O’er the lost that are found, as do angels above. 


Dear BAND come to CHRIST, love and serve Him together, 
Until one by one you shall part on the shore; 
Across the dark stream, in the bright blest forever, 


We meet, yes we meet, meet to part nevermore. 


LEAFLETS. 81 


- «YOU NEED CHRIST! AND CHRIST NEEDS 
YOU TO WORK FOR HIM.” —1rwnet. 


You need Christ, the great Creator, 
For in Him you live and move; 
Christ needs you to serve Him ever 
In His plan and work of love. 


You need Christ tg be your Saviour; 
With your sin and sorrow come. 

Christ needs you; the world’s Redeemer 
Shares with you His cross and crown. 


You need Christ—the light in darkness 
As the bright and morning star— 
Christ needs you, made in His likeness, 

To reflect His light afar. 


You need Christ, arisen in glory, 
As the soul’s eternal Sun; 

Christ needs you to tell the story, 
Till it gladdens every one. 


You need Christ, the path to open 
Through the tangled winding way ; 
Christ needs you, in paths thus broken, 
To bring home His own who stray. 


You need Christ—the friend, the brother 
Who can all our burdens bear— 
Christ needs you to help some other 


Every day, and everywhere. 
11 


82 


LEAFLETS. 


You need Christ, a guest, whose coming 
Multiplies all good beside; 

Heart and home have truest blessing 
If the Saviour there abide. 


You need Christ when earthly pleasure, 
Honor, friends, and wealth are thine ; 
He bestows the richest treasure— 
Hope, and peace, and joy divine. 


Christ needs you, to wse each blessing 
With a thankful heart, and share ; 

Thus your love for Him confessing, 
As you lighten grief and caré. 


You need Christ when faint and weary; 
You seek rest, und seek in vain; . 

When the lone still hours are dreary, 
Crowded full of care and pain. 


Christ’s loved sick and poor are needing 
Tender, patient ministry ; 

He has said—-while these relieving—— 
“Ye have done it unto Me.” 


You need Christ when any sorrow 
Fills the soul with midnight gloom ; 
He anticipates the morrow 
With the loved beyond the tomb. 


Christ needs you to comfort anguish 
With the consolations given, 

Bringing to the hearts that languish 
The unfailing balm of Heaven. 


LEAFLETS. 


You need Christ as interceding 
At the Heavenly Father’s throne; 
When you bring a heartfelt pleading 
You will never pray alone. 


Christ needs you to plead with others, 
Saying in love’s earnest tone, 

Come, with every want, my brothers, 
And you will not pray alone. 


You need Christ for wisdom, guidance, 


Comfort, strength and sympathy, 
Christ bids you—with this reliance— 
Give, as it is given to thee. 


You need Christ in each condition, 
Every day the need is new; 

Let it be your great ambition 
That the Lord hath need of you. 


One ray more the night to brighten, 
One more voice in calls of love, 
One hand more for rescue given, 
Is your mission from above. 


And when earthly work is over, 
One more chosen, precious gem, 

One more star to shine forever 
In the Saviour’s diadem. 


This last message thus was written 
By the hand of friendship true; 
In the work of earth and Heaven 
You need Christ, and Christ needs you. 





84 LEAFLETS. 


In the work of earth and Heaven 
You need Christ and Christ needs you ; 
How these words, when ties are riven, 
Bind the heart with hope anew! 


Blessed bond that thus unites us 
To the loved ‘ones gone before! 

One in work and love for Jesus, 
One in service evermore. 


= 


“NOW IS THE ACCEPTED TIME.” 


2 CORINTHIANS Vi: 2. 








“DON’T PUT IT OFF ONE DAY; TO-MORROW MAY BE 
Too LATE.”—LINNET. 





Behold, the time accepted 
Is now ; do not delay; 
The Saviour’s hand extended 
Will save this very day. 
Come now, while He is calling, 
Oh! wherefore do you wait ? 
Don’t put it off—unheeding, 
And put it off too late! 


As when He died to save us, 
He purchased for His own, 
You now belong to Jesus, 
To Him, and Him alone. 
He paid the price, redeeming 
With His own precious blood ; 
Come now, His word believing, 
Live now for Christ, your Lord. 





LEAFLETS. 


Don’t put off ’till the morrow, 
Its sun may never rise, 
Or it may bring you sorrow 
For sleeping, while the wise 
Upon the Bridegroom waiting 
Are welcomed at His board, 
To those ¢oo late in coming 
“The door was shut” and barred ! 


“God does forgive ; I know it; 
God does forgive to-day ;” 
The parting words of LINNET, 
Encourage us to pray. 
For, conscious of His favor, 
The shadowed vale was bright ; 
And footsteps did not falter 
Till lost in Heaven’s own light. 


The same Almighty Saviour 
Is ready to forgive. 
By earthly care, or labor, 
No soul can truly live. . 
You need His love! come asking 
While health and strength are yours, 
In time secure the blessing 
That evermore endures. 


If Linnet’s hand had waited 
Another day, to send 

The plea the heart dictated, 
In message to her friend, 

The thought would be unwritten ; 
The earnest word untold; 

For sickness came, unbidden, 
That loving hand to fold. 





p 


8F 


86 


LEAFLETS. 


Don’t put it off! I pray you. 
Is your soul safe this day ? 
Don’t put it off! it may be 
“Too late” if you delay, 
Eternity will open 
When life shall finish here ; 


Oh! where will you awaken, 


How before God appear! 


The comfort of the journey, 
A pathway bright and smooth, 
Is not the object only 
For which you live and move. 
Some noble, high commission, 
The end you have in view; 
And faithful to your mission, 
The welcome waiting you. 


The pleasures of the voyage, 
The friends with whom you sail, 
May charm the ocean passage, 
But everything will fail, 
If drifting past the harbor 
To stormy seas you come, 
In distant port to anchor 
So far away from home. 


To-day some task is waiting, 
Some conflict must be won, 
Don’t put it off, expecting 
A more convenient one. 
No step can be retaken, 
No passing hour reclaimed, 
Be faithful, as they hasten, 
Your home must be regained. 


LEAFLETS. 


Each hour of life is weaving 
Its opportunity, 
And we must use, or leaving 
We lose eternally. 
The Autumn cannot gather 
Unless the Spring has wrought, 
And Winter time must suffer 
If Summer nothing brought. 


Too late with noontide burdens 
To do the work of morn, 

Too late in evening shadows 
Life’s duties to perform. 

Too late to do to-morrow, 
The errand of to-day, 

Too late to help with sorrow 
The losses of your stay. 


Too late when sick, and weary, 
To think, or act, or pray, 

Too late when told life’s story 
To change a single day. 

The record of our living, 
‘The good that we may do, 

Is sealed, when faint, and dying, 
The world recedes from view. 


Now is the time entrusted, 
We are not sure of more, 
And life is short when ended, 
If it should reach fourscore. 
Don’t put off one day even 
The work you plan to do 
For earth, for God, for Heaven, 
At most the days are few. 


87 








88 LEAFLETS. 


Behold the time accepted 
Is now, do not delay, 

The Saviour’s hand extended 
Will save this very day. 

Come now, while He is calling, 
Oh! wherefore do you wait ? 

Don’t put it off —unheeding, 

: And put it off too late! 





Awl EO eviGgs 





FaTHER I ‘WILL THAT THEY ALSO WHOM THOU HAST GIVEN ME 
BE wiITH ME WHERE I AM, THAT THEY MAY BEHOLD My GLoRY.— 


John avii: 24. 


O! could we draw the vail, 
And look beyond the screen, 
What would the sight reveal ! 
What picture would be seen! 
Our pilgrims at the journey’s end— 
At Supper with their Lord and Friend. 


The pilgrimage is o’er, 
Its garments laid aside ; 
“ At Home” forevermore— 
Our loved ones, and their Guide; 
And can we ask them back to take 


An earthly burden—for our sake? 





LEAFLETS. . 89 


The eye of faith may look 
Across the narrow stream ; 
The vision of The Book 
Is not an idle dream. 
Ten thousand times ten thousands share 
The Father’s love, the Saviour’s care. 


From every race and clime, 
From every isle and shore, 
Of every name and time, 
Those who have gone before, 
Unite to praise the Guiding Hand, 
That brought them to that happy land. 


No tear in any eye, 
No cloud on any brow, 
No trembling lip, no sigh, 
No weary step, for now 
They dwell where all is pure and bright ; 
No shadowed days, and no more night. 


Arrayed in robe of white, 
Each with a conqueror’s palm, 
They join with new delight 
In the celestial psalm. 
Among the angels round the throne 
Do we not recognize our own? 


In golden vials there 
Are odors pure and sweet; 
The incense of a prayer 
From some obscure retreat ; 
And heaven is perfumed with the breath 
Of mortals, sent on wings of faith. 


12 


90 LEAFLETS. 


As at the dawn of day, 
Or when the shadows fall, 
You bow the knee to say, 
Dear Lord I bring thee all. 
You open golden vials there, 
O! keep them full by constant prayer. 


These golden vials filled | 
With fragrance rich and rare ; 
From buds of faith distilled 
By your heart’s earnest prayer— 
Are offered by an angel hand, 
That once perhaps was of your band. 


“At Home.” What does it mean 
To be at home in Heaven ? 
The eye hath never seen 
The glory that is given. 
«At Home” with Christ; what joy to spend 
The life that nevermore can end! 


The last her pen will trace, 
For mortal eye to see, 
“ At Home”——it means the place 
Where God’s own family 
Are welcomed—as their work is done, 
As they are gathered, one by one. 


At the dear Saviour’s feet, 
Within the heavenly school, 
How easy to repeat 
Each loving golden rule; 
To take the lesson from His hand, 
And from His lips, in that blest land. 


LEAFLETS. 


And when the lesson said, 
Beneath the spreading tree, 
With angels to be fed, 
Enjoy their ministry, 
Then go on errands full of love, 
With gifts for earth, from heaven above. 


Transformed, by contact dear, 
Into the Image best, 
O! how will they appear, 
Our sainted ones—so blest ? 
Can discipline of earth prepare 
To meet those who are students there ? 


By disappointments oft, 
By trial, grief and woe, 
By sorrow we are taught, 
While in the school below. 
By agony of thought, and heart, 
We learn to choose the better part. 


The Master’s will shall guide, 
He knows the way to take, 
He never leaves our side, 
He can make no mistake. 
We walk by faith, and not by sight, 
Each step is more into the light. 


“ Please God to let me go.” 
Saw she the open door ? 
Ox was one sent below, 
From those long gone before, 
To take her to the heavenly home, 
Where she is waiting till we come? 


LEAFLETS. 


“Papa, God does forgive.” 
The words of that last day 
A blest assurance give, 
That as she went away 
It was to meet the God of grace, 
Complete in Jesus’ righteousness. 


Our Linnet is “ At Home.” 
In pilgrim tents we stay ; 
But nearer rest.we come 
With every passing day. 
A little while for toil is given, 
And then we meet “ At Home” in heaven. 


THE PEARLS OF HEAVEN. 


‘And the twelve gates were twelve pearls. Every several 
gate was of one pearl.’’—Rkv. xxi: 21. 


The pearls of Heaven—* the gates ajar ”— 
Were opened wide one morn, 

As our beloved, beyond the star, 
On angel wings was borne. 


REFRAIN. 


Dear Lord, if I believe on Thee, 

Those pearls will open wide for me, 
For me, for me, 

When I am called to Thee. 








LEAFLETS. 93 


In robe of white, with crown of gold, 
To harp of sweetest tone, 
She sings the song, “ Worthy the Lamb,” 
With angels round the throne. 
ftefrain—Dear Lord, &c. 


I have no robe of snowy fold, 
And may I enter in? 
The precious blood, with love untold, 
Will cleanse my heart from sin. 
Refrain—Dear Lord, &e. 


I have no harp, no palm, no crown, 
But if I love the Lord, 
I know He will prepare His own 
To meet his Father—God. 
Refrain—Dear Lord, &c. 


I would do something every day 
To please my Saviour well, 
And then when I am called away 
Go home, with Him, to dwell. © 
Refrain—Dear Lord, &e. 





FOR THE pPERVICE AT THE LAYING OF THE [ORNER pPTONE OF 


THE MEMORIAL (HAPEL, SUCCASUNNA, N. po May 19, 1887. 


“WORK, REAL WORK FOR CHRIST.” —1inner. 





Work, real work for Jesus, 
Some real work each day; — 

The silent Voice entreats us, 
Be faithful while you may. 


94 


LEAFLETS. 


Don’t put off one day even 
The work you plan to do, 
For earth, for God, for heaven, 
The working days are few. 


You need a loving Saviour, 
Christ needs a willing hand, 
An earnest heart, to labor 
"Till, one by one, the Band 
Shall gather at the river, 
And pass the pearly gate, 
T'o be “at home” forever, 
Where our beloved wait. 


We consecrate the building, 
Whose corner-stone we lay 
To Christ, on whom are resting 
Those here and those away. 

Built on the Rock of ages, 
On either side the stream, 
The Church one anthem raises, 
Redeeming love the theme. 


With Christ and Christians meeting, 


We here would learn anew 
To use the moments fleeting 
In work that each may do; 
In faithful, loving service, 
To finish as we can 
The real work for Jesus 
That was in Linnet’s plan. 


Some real work in sowing 
The seeds of truth and love; 
Some real work in reaping 
To garner sheaves above. 


LEAFLETS. 


We toil until the evening, 
Hach with the setting sun; 
The worker’s crown receiving 
When Christ shall say “ Well done.” 


A welcome home was given 
To one—a year ago; 
A year of life in heaven, 
A year of life below; 
One nearer to the meeting, 
When in that happy land, 
With those who need our guiding, 
We join the ransomed Band. 


Rave fos LICHT EENTH 
Pee ery TAY 


ach birthday we were wont to bring love’s token ; 
n Heaven, by angel hands the gifts are woven. 

od called—the robe of white, the palm bestowing ; 
is home alone could give you every blessing ; 

here crowned with light and immortality, 

nriched with treasure for eternity, 

arth’s love you cherish, thus earth’s work is given 


ew help; inspiring thought to live for Heaven. 


Bee Se 











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BRIEF DESCRIPTION. 


It is in the form of a cross. The front has two 
stories and a tower. Entering the central hall you 
pass to the bible class room and library on the left, 
to the infant class on the right, or between them 
to the auditorium. Above the bible class and infant 
class rooms and the hall are the ladies’ parlors, a 
suite of three rooms. All the rooms open into the 
auditorium, the glass doors folding on either side. 
The main room is of one story, the roof being sup- 
ported by trestle work. The floors and ceiling are 
of Georgia pine, trimmed with California red wood. 
The auditorium has seats for one hundred and ten, 
the bible class room forty, the infant class fifty. 

The pulpit is an arched recess; on either side are 
memorial windows. One representing Mary at the 
feet of Christ; underneath are the words, ‘‘One 

thing is needful,” and ‘‘ You need Christ, and 
Christ needs you to work for Him,’’—Linnet. The 
companion window represents the Angel of the Res- 
urrection ; on a scroll are the words, ‘‘ The trumpet 


13 





98 DEDICATION SERVICES OF 


shall sound and the dead shall be raised,’’ and be- 
neath, ‘‘ We must all die sometime,’’—Linnet. The 
other windows are of stained glass in tints to har- 
monize. 


In the central ladies’ parlor, over the front en- 
trance, are two other memorial windows; one repre- 
senting Christ, the Good Shepherd, with the words 
‘Reed my Lambs.’’ The other is the figure of 
Charity, idealizing Linnet’s face; the cloak of the 
maiden enfolds two children. and one sits at her 
feet. Beneath are the words ‘‘I want to do real 
work for Christ.’’ Above the shepherd is a little 
linnet bird, and in the sky, above the maiden, is a 
flock of birds. The memorial windows were painted 
‘by the artist Booth in London, and are fine works 
of art. 


The third ladies’ room has a large closet, and an 
elevator which communicates with the dining room 
and kitchen in the basement. 

The study is in the third story in the base of the 
tower. 


DEDICATION SERVICES. 


On May 19th, 1888, at 1030 «a. m., the Memorial 
Chapel, of Succasunna, was dedicated to the uses for 
which it was built. 


The services opened with ‘‘ Praise God from whom 
all blessings flow,”’ followed by the Lord’s Prayer, 
the congregation uniting. Rey. Mr. Hrx1, pastor of 
the Drakesville Baptist Church, read the Scripture les- 
son, Psalm 1; 2 Chronicles, chapter 6. Rev. JAMES 


MEMORIAL CHAPEL. 99 


BREwsTER, of Chester, gave out the hymn, ‘‘ You 
need Christ, and Christ needs You:’’ 


You need Christ, and Christ needs you, 
As life’s journey you pursue, 

Guided by the Morning Star, 

Send its cheering beams afar, 

And reflect the noontide ray 

On each dark and shadowed way. 


You need Christ, and Christ needs you, 
As you find each promise true, 

For the faint and weary care, 

With the sad and lonely share, 

Freely give, as it is given, 

The unfailing balm of Heaven. 


You need Christ, and Christ needs you, 
There is work for each to do, 

Go with Him to seek His own, 

Call and lead the wanderer home, 

And thus add another gem 

To the Saviour’s diadem. 


You need Christ, and Christ needs you, 
Many years may come, or few; 

One with Christ in either land, 

One in service with the band 

Singing with a meaning new 

You need Christ, and Christ needs you. 


Rev. Dr. B. C. Meare, of Dover, then offered 
prayer, in which he asked the Divine blessing on 
the work of this day and all those engaged in it, 
also referring in a most beautiful way to the object 


100 DEDICATION SERVICES OF 


and cause which had brought forth such a vast 
throng. Then followed the 


MEMORIAL SERMON 


by Rev. C. A. Stopparp, editor of the New York 
Observer, the theme being ‘‘ The Youthful Spirit of 
Christianity :”’ 


Who is there of all the inhabitants of earth that 
has not felt a desire to be remembered? To realize 
this wish monuments have been raised, and colleges 
founded, and hospitals endowed, and brave exploits 
performed ; to this object the miser has devoted his 
penurious gains, the student his stores of learning, 
the painter his greatest skill. Eulogies and pane- 
gyrics have been pronounced by living orators, and | 
inscriptions have been engraved upon enduring brass 
and marble; poems have been written, statues sculp- 
tured, and bodies embalmed, that the names of men 
and some record of their lives might be perpetuated. 

Men have left legacies to be expended in celebra- 
ting by mournful obsequies the anniversary of their 
death, and annual feasts have been originated for 
the purpose of remembering the departed, and our 
blessed Lord gives us one of the strongest and most 
enduring proofs of His humanity in ordaining a 
memorial by which he would be remembered to the 
end of time. 

In the institution of the last supper He expressed 
a wish to which every human heart responds, saying, 
‘‘Do this in remembrance of me;’’ He established a 
sacred festival, by which the memory of His atoning 





MEMORIAL CHAPEL. 101 


death shall be perpetuated unto the end of the world. 
Thus shall that death, so ignominious in its cir- 
cumstances, and so glorious in its results, be re- 
membered in the repeated celebration of this prelude 
to the gloomy scene by the whole world of’ believers, 
whom the declaration of His love and the preaching 
of His cross is to subdue to His control, and make 
sweetly submissive to His blessed commands. 


In accordance with such human sentiments, and 
in imitation of such a Divine example, we have 
gathered this day, dear friends, to dedicate a me- 
morial chapel to the service of almighty God, and 
the pious uses of this congregation. The offering is 
made in memory of a young maiden who brought 
brightness and blessing to an earthly home for seven- 
teen years, whose life was sweet and beneficent to 
others, and who had given herself heartily and en- 
tirely to Christ and to His service. It is fitting that 
she should be commemorated by a building where 
work for the Master shall go on in years to come, 
in the same spirit in which she offered her humble 
and faithful labors. Thus, while her pure spirit 
ministers before the throne in the ineffable glory, 
will a ministry of love and saving grace be performed 
in her name here below. 

ExizA Piatrr STODDARD was a rare example of the 
true Christian youth whom Jesus loves. She gave 
her young heart with its fresh and ardent love to the 
Saviour, and began her service to Him at once in 
the endeavor to bring others to Christ. Almost her 
last conscious act was to keep a promise to pray 
alone, at a certain hour, for two young friends whom 


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she had urged to follow Christ, and whom she had 
engaged to meet daily at the throne of grace. She 
has passed into the presence of her Lord, and I can- 
not better honor her memory to-day than by making 
the incident recorded in the gospel of Matthew, at 
the eighteenth chapter and the second and third 
verses, the theme of my remarks: ‘‘ And Jesus called 
a little child unto Him, and set him in the midst of 
them, and said, verily I say unto you, Except ye 
be converted, and become as little children, ye shall 
not enter into the kingdom of heaven.’’ 


The disciples had asked our Lord, ‘‘ Who is the 
greatest in the kingdom of heaven ?”’ and Christ had 
answered their question in the most impressive way, 
and set forth the characteristic of His kingdom, its 
childlike, youthful spirit. In Peter's speech, after 
the healing of the lame man at the beautiful gate 
of the temple, he calls our Lord ‘‘God’s holy child 
Jesus,’’ and thus presents the founder of the Chris- 
tian religion to us with the characteristic of youth- 
fulness. It was as a boy of twelve years of age that 
He came to Jerusalem from Nazareth’s quiet valley 
to walk among the living monuments of his country’s 
pride and glory, in the heart and centre of all that 
was revered and holy in Jewish nationality and re- 
ligion ; and there the high calling, the sublime hopes 
and the lofty endowments of Israel stirred and filled 
his mind, quickened his pure soul into a living con- 
sciousness of His relations to the Father, and in- 
spired Him to undertake with boldness and success 
His Father’s business; and it was as a young man, 
His eye full and clear, His face fair and His form 


MEMORIAL CHAPEL. 103 


distinguished by youthful strength and beauty, that 
He went forth in meek and zealous obedience to His 
brief but pregnant career as Redeemer of the world. 


His enthusiasm and devotion, His quickness of 
perception and exuberant imagination, were charac- 
teristic of youth; His unremitting labors and priva- 
tions were such as youth only could endure, for, 
with all the mysteries of His divine person, He still 
had a complete human nature, and this nature was 
consecrated to the work of redemption in the most 
vigorous and active period of its development. In 
the founder of the Christian religion, then, we dis- 
cover this youthfulness which characterizes it in its 
development, its principles, and its effects. 


We mark these evidences of vigor and freshness 
belonging to youth in the progress and in the 
present condition of Christ's kingdom. The century 
of His birth had not elapsed before the religion of 
Jesus Christ, in spite of opposition from the rulers 
of the world, the virulent persecution of its ad- 
herents and the comparative feebleness of its friends 
had made itself felt throughout the known world. 
Wherever the standard of Rome was planted there 
rose beside it, though not beneath its protection, the 
symbol of the Cross, and three centuries had not 
passed before Christianity was the real power which 
swayed the sceptre of the imperial throne. This 
same dauntless and enterprising spirit of youth has 
ever distinguished Christianity. The history of 
human progress is but a record of the triumphs of 
the Christian religion in its energetic assaults upon 
the systems of human ignorance and sin. It still 





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maintains its youthful character. Is a reform to be 
inaugurated in morals or manners, What engine is 
there so potent to employ in its accomplishment as 
the religion of Jesus? Is there misery to be relieved 
and vice to be restrained and removed, From whence 
are the agents and instruments of such a work drawn 
but from the Church of Christ? Are nations debased 
and grovelling in ignorance and depravity to be 
elevated and enlightened, Whence comes the im- 
pulse for such an undertaking, where are the means 
gathered, to whom is the self-sacrificing and labori- 
ous work entrusted but to the subjects of Christ's 
kingdom? In that kingdom there is the vital energy 
of divine youth, there alone is the spirit of self- 
denial, there are the souls that have been stimu- 
lated into a living consciousness ofa Master in heaven, 
and a business of faith and devotion to His service on 
earth. No, my friends, it is not commerce with its 
white-winged messengers flying over every sea; it is 
not regal power displayed in armaments and war- 
like array ; it is not astute diplomacy and the craft 
of statesmen that lift degraded and savage peoples 
into the ranks of civilization, and intelligence and 
virtue. It is the energizing, quickening influence of 
a living Christianity. It is the arm of Christ’s king- 
dom whose vigorous sweep levels the barriers of 
superstition and prejudice. It is the wisdom of the 
serpent combined with the harmlessness of the dove 
that baffles the plans of selfishness and avarice. It is 
the vigor, the enterprise, the unflagging zeal and the 
heartiness of a youthful Christianity which is erelong 
to cast at Jesus’ feet the crowns of all the earth. 





MEMORIAL CHAPEL. 105 


But again, the youthful spirit of Christianity is 
seen in its fundamental principles. The first requi- 
site to admission into the kingdom of heaven is faith, 
and the faith which is required is not a blind assent 
to certain doctrines, nor the acceptance of the result 
of reasoning. Its best and most intelligible defini- 
tion is, an affectionate confidence in a personal being. 
Such a faith is pre-eminently a characteristic of youth. 
Those who displayed this affectionate confidence in 
Jesus Christ, and his mission, were young. It was 
not the old man Zebedee who left his boats to fol- 
low Christ, but his sons; it was Nathaniel, an Isra- 
elite, in whom was no guile, who had the innocent 
and confiding heart of a child, whose soul responded 
with earnest affection to the claim which Christ made 
upon his love and service. It was in that home at 
Bethany, where three young persons formed the 
family, that the Saviour found the sanctuary of 
trusting and loving hearts. Who is it that he rep- 
resents in the inimitable parable, as saying “TI will 
arise and go to my father, and will say unto him, 
father, I have sinned against heaven and before thee, 
and am no more worthy to be called thy son, make 
me as one of thy hired servants,’’ but a young man, 
in whom a rapid course of vice and misery had failed 
to blight the affectionate confidence of a son in a 
good father’s love. No, it is not the belief of the in- 
tellect which qualifies for entrance into Christ’s king- 
dom but the affectionate confidence of the heart. 


Another youthful quality, which is also a funda- 
mental principle of Christ’s kingdom, is humitity. 
This is not always a characteristic of youth; and in 

14 


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these days of precocious and unnatural mental and 
moral growth, it seems unhappily to depart at a 
lamentably early period. This is largely due to a 
mistaken system of education. It is therefore an un- 
healthy and unnatural development when youth is 
proud and self-conceited rather than diffident and 
humble. The true child is dependent, and devoid of 
pretension, and modest. Its simplicity, grace and 
innocence associate themselves by a sort of intuition 
with the excellencies of angels and a better world. 
It is this spirit of modesty and humility which 
breathes through the epistles of the beloved disciple, 
a guilelessness and sincerity which only they can 
have who are meek and lowly of heart, a distrust of 
self which leads to humble dependence upon God, a 
spirit beautifully illustrated by the Syro-Pheenician 
woman, who answered the severe words of Christ, 
‘*Tt is not meet to take the children’s bread and cast 
it to the dogs,”’ with the humble and touching argu- — 
ment, ‘‘ truth Lord, yet the dogs under the table eat 
of the children’s crumbs,’ or by that humble and 
trustful reply of the centurion, who said, ‘‘ Lord, I 
am not worthy that Thou shouldest come under my 
roof, but speak the word only and my servant shall 
be healed.’? It was to inculcate such a spirit that 
Jesus in the scene of the text, when the disciples 
reasoned who should be the greatest, took a child, 
and set him by him, and said, ‘‘ Whosoever shall re- 
ceive this child in my name receiveth me; and who- 
soever receiveth me, receiveth him that sent me, for 
he that is least among you all, the same shall be 
great ;’ (Luke 9: 47, 48.) Tradition declares that 


MEMORIAL CHAPEL. LOG 


this child was Ignatius, afterwards Bishop of Antioch, 
who was cast to the wild beasts on account of his tes- 
timony of Christ, and who thus writes in view of 
approaching martyrdom, ‘‘ Now I begin to be a dis- 
ciple. Nothing, whether of things visible or invisi- 
ble, excites my ambition so long as I can gain Christ. 
Whether fire, or the cross, or the assaults of wild 
beasts, the tearing asunder of my bones, the break- 
ing of my limbs, the bruising of my whole body, 
let the tortures of the devil all assail me, if I do 
but gain Christ Jesus !’’ Euzebius 3: 36. Such is the 
spirit of humble dependence and self-renunciation 
which characterizes Christ’s kingdom. 

But again, This kingdom exhibits its youthful 
character by requiring a docile and teachable spirit 
in all of its subjects. Many persons cease to learn 
after middle life. They become obstinate and opin- 
ionated, unwilling to be instructed by others, and 
incompetent to teach themselves. But youth is open 
to receive teaching. From the moment when light 
dawns upon the infant he is the apt scholar of myriad 
voices and influences which delight as they draw forth 
and enlarge his powers. Everything which meets the 
eye, the ear, or the touch, is educating him toa 
larger apprehension, which God ever meets with fresh 
supplies. And not only is this docility of youth 
shown in its readiness to observe phenomena, but also 
in its willingness to accept instruction respecting 
them. The soul is yet unversed in the mysteries of 
knowledge, unpuzzled by the problems which the 
intellect of mature years states but fails to solve, 
unbiassed by prejudice or pride of opinion. It natu- 


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rally receives without question all knowlege or belief 
which is offered to the mind. Who does not envy 
that childlike spirit which sees a present God in the 
lightning’s blaze and hears His voice in the crash 
and roll of the thunder? which accepts without in- 
terpretation the language of the Bible respecting the 
universe, which believes as solemn truths the state- | 
ment that God ‘‘clothes the lillies of the field’? and 
‘‘numbers the hairs of the head,’’ that ‘‘the heav- 
ens declare His glory and the firmament sheweth His 
handiwork.”’ 


Oh, how near are such docile souls to the great 
Father of all! How gently, and yet how grandly 
does He lead His creatures toward the sublime know- 
ledge of Himself that they may adore and love Him! 
And it is not until human science interposes its 
doubtful teaching that the puzzled learner begins to 
hesitate and draw away from Divine instruction ; to 
set up his own opinions and theories, and to ex- 
change the childish wisdom of a perfect faith for the 
unsatisfying inventions of schoolmen and _ philoso- 
phers. 

The subject of Christ’s kingdom must return to this 
spirit of childhood, must hear Christ’s words, ‘‘ take 
my yoke upon you and learn of me,’”’ and begin once 
more to receive with the tractable spirit of youth the 
instructions of the Great teacher. The learned man 
of the Jews must be ‘‘ born again’’ before he can see 
the kingdom of God, he must come back to this spirit 
of childhood and be content to receive with humblé 
acquiescence those things which he cannot compre- 
hend. The young man whom Jesus loves must re- 





MEMORIAL CHAPEL. 109 © 


nounce his self-acquired worldly wisdom, and learn 
of Jesus that riches are not the chief good, before 
even the love of Christ can give him entrance into His 
kingdom. Paul must count all things, whether of 
Jewish rabbinical lore or heathen philosophy, as loss 
that he may know Christ and the power of His resur- 
rection ; and none, except they be converted and be- 
come as little children shall enter into the kingdom 
of heaven. 


Once more, The spirit of youth is enthusiastic and 
gleeful ; and this spirit is trnly characteristic of the 
kingdom of Christ. Youth is not ashamed to give 
full expression to its feelings. It makes no effort to 
restrain its wonder, blushes not to declare its love, 
weeps with ready sympathy, never hesitates to praise 
or condemn and enters upon duty with all its might. 
The youthful spirit has no sympathy with that dis- 
position which is never surprised, which accepts 
everything without emotion, which is slow to com- 
mend, and afraid to appear interested lest it offend 
the formalities of society. Youth hath no such cra- 
ven dread of nature and of natural festivity. Its 
laugh rings with a heartiness which rebukes the stern 
ascetic, its whole-souled grasp of the hand and fervent 
embrace break down the defences of formality and 
pride, its fertile imagination throws the sanguine hue 
of success over every undertaking, its liberal ex- 
penditure of effort appears reckless waste to the pru- 
dence of maturity or old age. Now, such enthusiasm 
and joyousness are distinguishing traits of Christi- 
anity. Its founder wrought His first great miracle at 
a marriage festival that He might minister to the joy 





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and exhilaration of the guests, and crown the feast 
with His added gift and blessings. 

We do not serve our Master best, dear friends, by 
shutting out true and hearty pleasure from our lives. 
We rather offend Him by these Pharisaic prohibi- 
tions, for they are contrary to the principles of His 
kingdom. Our danger and our fear come from the 
exclusion of our Lord from festive scenes. How safe 
and how doubly happy should we be, in all joyous 
occasions and festive meetings, if He who graced the 
wedding at Cana were consciously present as a guest 
and friend! If, with the spirit of sanctified youth, 
we welcomed every new experience of joy as the 
blessing of a benignant Saviour, and allowed every 
new-born pleasure to open in our hearts the springs 
of pious gratitude and unhindered praise, we should 
honor Him who by His example and precept bids us 
‘‘rejoice with them that do rejoice.’’ It was this 
spirit of joyfu) enthusiasm which gave utterance to the 
intense and extravagant expressions of the apostle, 
‘‘the depth of the riches both of wisdom and know- 
ledge of God !’’ (Rom. 10; 33,) ‘‘The love of Christ, 
that passeth kKnowledge,’’ which vainly strives to 
describe Christ’s character, which overcame even the 
cautious and reticent Thomas, till he burst from the 
bonds of long habit and the chains of doubt, and 
becoming once more a child, cried out to Jesus, ‘“‘my 
Lord and my God!” It was such a spirit which 
filled the heart of John when he exclaimed in words, — 
whose repetition enraptures every pious soul, ‘‘ Be- 
loved, now are we the sons of God and it doth not 


MEMORIAL CHAPEL. 111 


yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when 
He shall appear we shall be like Him !”’ 


It is said that the artist Correggio, when young, 
saw a painting by Raphael. Long and ardently did 
the youth gaze on that picture. His soul drank in its 
beauty, us flowers drink moisture from the mist. He 
waked to the consciousness of artistic power. Burn- 
ing with the joyful enthusiasm of enkindled genius, 
the blood rushing to his brow, and the fire flashing 
from his eyes, he cried out ‘‘I also am a painter.”’ 
This enthusiasm carried him through his initial 
studies, it blended the colors on his pallette, it guided 
his pencil, it shone on his canvas, until Titian, on 
seeing his productions, exclaimed, ‘‘ Were I not 
Titian, I should wish to be Correggio!’’ With such 
a spirit of youthful enthusiasm does the soul upon 
whom the glory of Christ has shined dwell upon the 
character of the Redeemer; enraptured by his per- 
fections, enkindled by his love, till changed into his 
image, from glory to glory, as by the Spirit of the 
Lord, he cries out, ‘‘I also am a Christian, and for 
me to live is Christ !’’ 

In the sweet and sacred memory of such a Christian 
spirit has this chapel been reared and consecrated. 
The young maiden whose name it bears was a child of 
pious parents; but more than this she was a child of 
God. She manifested an affectionate confidence in 
her Heavenly Father; she accepted with meek humil- 
ity the life which he appointed, and made no murmur 
when he bade her leave her earthly home, and loving 
kindred, for the life beyond. She was a docile pupil 
in the school of Christ, and endeavored to obey in 





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word and life the Saviour’s words, ‘‘Take my yoke 
upon you, and learn of Me,’ and many of you know 
full well how enthusiastic and joyful was the service 
that she gave to every good work, and how happy it 
made her to serve Jesus. 


The life which is commemorated here was indeed a 
life of happy, useful, sanctified childhood and youth. 
No dark clouds le over the horizon of the past, no 
bitter memories throw their shadows over this _hal- 
lowed scene. All is bright with the smile of God 
and radiant with the joy of that heaven into which 
the redeemed of the Lord enter. And I cannot pay a 
better tribute to the memory of this sweet maiden 
whom Jesus has taken, nor do a fairer service to those 
loved ones who have reared this memorial, than to 
especially commend to those of you who are here in 
the dawn and brightness of your lives this youthful 
spirit of Christ’s kingdom. 

The religion of Jesus is not given to us as a last 
resource after earth has failed to satisfy. It is not 
provided simply as a medicine for decay and decrepi- 
tude, nor as an anodyne to lull disturbed and anxious 
consciences to rest. Christ does not make his appeals 
to those who seek only the loaves and fishes, after 
they have wasted and trifled away his precious gifts. 
True, such may come, and welcome, to receive the 
bounty which they long have slighted. But He 
encourages the little children to come to Him; He 
invites the young men who are ready to bend un- 
broken energies to His noble service ; who are eager 
to know what is truth ; who are modest and diffident 
as to the range and scope of their abilities. He calls 


MEMORIAL CHAPEL. 113 


the young women, who would devote their beauty 
and loveliness to adorn and glorify His temple courts 
and win by loving arts and holy tenderness adherents 
to His cause. He asks the young to consecrate the 
enthusiasm of their natures, and the gladness which 
makes every object an occasion of delight, to the ex- 
tension of a kingdom whose universal sway would 
unite every heart in holy joy, and speed every foot in 
missions of holy benevolence, and occupy every hand 
with divine ministrations. 


Oh, come then to Jesus ye who have not yet lost 
the spirit and feelings of youth, and find in His love 
and service those characteristics which are peculiarly 
your own; those employments which are yours by 
right of especial fitness of temper and disposition 
and that increased happiness which arises from pure 
and unselfish love. 

In the spirit of Christ’s kingdom we can all be 
young. Young Christians are so; those in middle- 
age may ‘be converted and become as little children ;’ 
and those upon whom the snows of many winters 
have fallen may ‘renew their youth,’ as they sit, 
meek and lowly, in the school of Christ, and learn of 
Him. As this chapel is consecrated to God in remem- 
brance of a young Christian, your sister and friend, 
may the Divine Spirit breathe into some souls a new 
life! then shall a richer offering ascend to the Most 
High than even parental love can rear from earthly 
materials, and a holy influence shall begin here which 
will spread and grow throughout eternal ages; and 
thus will Linnert’s last written wish be fulfilled, ‘* I 


want to do real work for Christ.’’ 
15 


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Following the Memorial Sermon, the hymn “When 
in the Ancient Days’’ was sung. 


When in the Ancient Days 
The Temple arches rang 
With gratitude and praise, 
As all the people sang, 
A cloud filled all the house of God, 
It was the glory of the Lord. 


A token of his grace 
We earnestly desire 
To consecrate this place, 
And every heart inspire ; 
As we unite in song and prayer 
We ask thy glory, Lord, to share. 


In tender memory 
Of one with Thee above, 
We dedicate to Thee 
This offering of love; 
Make it Thy dwelling ’till we come 
To dwell with Thee and those at home. 


Enkindle here a light 
O’er hill and vale to shine, 
To penetrate the night 
Of some far distant clime; 
To every hearth, to every land 
May blessings go at thy command. 


And when we meet in Heaven, 
To join its endless Psalm, 
May many souls be given 
The harp and crown and palm, 
Who learned to love and serve and sing 
Where we, to-day, are worshiping. 


MEMORIAL CHAPEL. 115 


Rev. H. M. Storrs, D. D., then spoke on the 


USES OF A MEMORIAL. 


He said: 

The world is full of memorials. If you cross the 
ocean, as soon as you touch the shores of the old 
world, some statue, some building, some monu- 
ment, some memorial of the past meets the eye. 
As you travel from country to country you read 
its history in its memorials. Memorials are found 
everywhere; travel where you will you meet them. 
In the southern part of England I found them. 
London is full of them. Go to Rome and you 
are surrounded with them. Down in Egypt you 
find the wonderful pyramids. Napoleon said, when 
approaching them with his army, ‘Four thousand 
years are looking down upon you.’ Some of these 
monuments were erected by the individuals whose | 
names they bear, others by loving friends. What 
are the uses of these monuments? The answer is, To 
perpetuate a name—a life—and deeds of heroism. I 
have stood in the crypt of St. Peter’s, at Rome, in 
the shadow of the pyramids, by the beautiful Taj, 
the mausoleum of the Indian princess, in the ruins of 
Thebes, by the obelisk, at Alexandria, the companion 
of that in our Central Park—all memorials of some- 
thing. Then, in our own land, the great obelisk that 
has been raised to the memory of Washington, in its 
severe simplicity and grandeur, fit emblem of the 
man who towered above his fellow men. In every 
churchyard there are memorials. 


What do they mean? Our brother has said, They 


116 DEDICATION SERVICES OF 


answer an instinct of our human nature to be remem- 

bered. That may be, but they mean something more. 
These memorials are not alone for the dead, but for 
the living. The departed have passed to grander and 
more beautiful objects ; they cannot be benefitted by 
memorials, but the living can be incited and inspired 


to a truer—nobler life, as they look upon the monu- 
ments that gratitude and affection have raised to 
commemorate goodness and greatness. 


The stone that records the self-denying life of the 
hero inspires patriotism; the reminder of the earnest 
and devoted life enkindles holy desires and purposes 
and enthusiasm. The monuments reared by loving 
hearts and hands are educators. No one can stand 
by the monument of Bunyan, or Wesley, without 
his heart being stirred with holy love and zeal, with- 
out being inspired to a new consecration of thought 
and plan, and aim. Thus, memorials link the present 
to the past and bring strength for the duties of the 
hour from the ages that have gone; the generations 
of to-day are inspired by the acts of all the genera- 
tions of time. Of all memorials that men erect the 
most fitting and lasting are those that answer man’s 
highest end to glorify God. 

These material monuments decay and crumble into 
dust, the names of their builders, as well as those 
whose memory they were designed to perpetuate, have 
perished. Who built the pyramids no one can tell. 
So with this beautiful chapel, it will crumble and 
decay; the name it designs to perpetuate, ELiza 
PLATT STODDARD, will be forgotten; the names of 
her parents will not long be remembered, here ; but 





MEMORIAL CHAPEL. 117 


Christ lives on, and he that would be held in everlast- 
ing remembrance must enter into this Christ life. If 
you want your work to be lasting let it be for Christ. 
Contact with the Christ ensures immortality. The 
woman who touched the hem of his garment was 
thus brought before the generations of mankind. 
When Mary poured ointment on the feet of Christ 
He said, ‘‘ Wheresoever this gospel shall be preached 
in the whole world there shall also this that this 
woman hath dune be told for a memorial of her.’’ 
Mary, in Christ’s hand is held up to the gaze of the 
ages. Tne touch of Christ immortalizes. Association 
with Christ gives a life that never ends. Engrafted 
into the living side of the living Christ we live forever. 
This Memorial Chapel is not built to glorify Linner, 
or her father and mother, but to glorify Linnet’s 
Saviour and to carry out her desire to do real work 
for Christ. 


Dr. E. W. Sropparp followed Dr. Storrs. He 
said: The most painful year will end; the most 
laborious year will come to its close. 

One year ago we laid the corner-stone of this 
_ building, and we then asked you to pray that God’s 
blessing might attend the laying of every stone and 
the fastening of every nail. So far has this prayer 
been answered that no accident has attended the 
work, and a satisfactory completion has been reached. 
The design has been to furnish a convenient and suit- 
able place for the Sunday School; the Mission work 
for the young and the old; the prayer meeting, and 
for social and literary gatherings. We ask you now 





118 DEDICATION SERVICES OF 


to join in the earnest prayer of consecration to the 
service of God, and the good of the people, till its 
timbers shall crumble and its stones perish. May 
this house ever be the home-school of the church—a 
house of prayer and place of blessing to all who shall 
come under its roof. 


In his prayer of consecration he said: * * Now, 
we pray Thee, Lord Jesus, accept this building for 
the purposes for which it was erected. Consecrate it. 
Bless all the uses which shall promote Thy glory, and 


Thy name will we praise forever. AMEN. 


Rey. A. Erpman, D. D., of the South Street Presby- | 
terian Church of Morristown, followed in a brief ad- 
dress in his usual happy manner, in which he said: 
That as the hour was late he would make but few re- 
marks. On behalf of the congregation of this place 
he took great pleasure to present to Dr. Stoddard and 
his wife the thanks of the people for this beautiful 
edifice. It would be a constant reminder of them, 
and a cause for gratification and joy and affection. 
It will be a constant reminder and appeal to all for 
the purposes for which it was erected. He was thank- 
ful that he was permitted to be here and publicly 
thank the beloved pastor and his wife for their kind- 
ness and generosity in erecting so fitting a memorial 
for their departed child, whose spirit he fondly be- 
lieved looked down with love and joy on these glori- 


ous proceedings. 


The singing of the following hymn, “Ye are the 





ee er 


MEMORIAL CHAPEL. 119 


Temple Shrine,’’ in which all the congregation joined 
most heartily, was very inspiring: | 
Ye are the Temple shrine 
That all the years of time 
_ Cannot deface; 
A Temple of the Lord 
Where dwells the Holy Word, 
The Spirit of our God 
Filling with grace. 


The Lamb on altar slain, 

The Lamb enthroned to reign,. 
The sacrifice ; 

The incense, is the prayer 

That faith and love prepare, 

And works of mercy share 
Heavenward to rise. 


A wayside Temple here, 
The pilgrimage to cheer, 
And when we rest, 
A Temple on that shore, 
Where loved ones gone before 
Shall help us evermore 
In service blest. 


After an invitation to the lunch provided by the 
ladies, in the dining room, the benediction was pro- 


nounced by Rev. Wm. McCarn of the Succasunna 
M. E. Church. 


On Sunday afternoon the Sunday school held a 
Separate and interesting service of dedication. 


The printed order of exercises closed with the fol- 
lowing lines. 
Iinnet’s going suggested this Chapel. 
Linnet’s words suggested these Hymns. 
E. A. §. 


nn ae 


LINNET’S NINETEENTH BIRTHDAY. 


NINE ee 


N o more amid the changing scenes, where ring the bells of time, 
Is heard the melody so dear, our LINNET’s birthday chime. 

N ow dwelling with the Christ. our Lord, in realms of life above, 
E ach year is measured by the growth in wisdom, and in love. 
T hou art our own dear LINNET still, thy thought to us is given, 
E ncouraging each faltering step, as we walk home to Heaven. 
EK nshielding with an angel wing, the pilgrim’s pathway o’er, 


N ot seen but near, until the BAND shall meet to part no more. 


For THE BAND ON }INNET'S NINETEENTH BIRTHDAY. 


B.A ee 


+ PPONOR 





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